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Breakthrough: Senate panel accepts 6.0 sales taxNeither side fully confident deal can clear its chamberPosted: May 24, 2013 - 2:20pm
By Andy Marso
After weeks of negotiations, three senators needed just five minutes to mull over the House's latest offer for a 6.0 sales tax.Senate negotiators led by Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker, stepped out of the room briefly Friday afternoon. Then they came back and Tyson made a surprise announcement that caused the crowded conference room to fell silent.“We very much appreciate your offer at this time, and we are willing to accept your offer,” Tyson said, ending a seemingly intractable dispute over whether the state's sales tax should remain at 6.3 percent or drop to 6.0 or even 5.7.But afterward, neither side seemed positive the compact would be accepted by their respective chamber. The House offered the 6.0 percent rate weeks ago, but leadership's hold on 63 votes for it is tenuous. Rep. Richard Carlson, R-St. Marys, said it could depend on how many House members make it back to the Statehouse for a vote Tuesday morning on Senate Bill 84 after the holiday weekend."I'm very optimistic we can pass it on Tuesday," Carlson said. "Hopefully we don't have too many members gone because of the lateness in the session."Republicans can hope for little help from the Democratic minority, which didn’t sign off on the agreement."I have a hard time seeing the 63 votes in the House," said House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence. "They can move the percentages around all they want, but the bottom line is that’s an $856 million tax increase over the next five years.”Rep. Joshua Powell, R-Topeka, a conservative, said he is looking for net revenue reductions."I just want to see them put an offer forward that will get through both houses and reduce the overall burden on taxpayers," Powell said.The negotiations took on a sharper edge Friday morning after the House voted down a Senate-approved plan and Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, stepped onto the six-member conference committee made up of three senators and three House members.Bruce later said he had serious doubts about whether the agreement could get 21 Senate votes, but signing it was necessary to keep the process moving. The Senate passed its plan for a 4.95 percent sales tax on groceries and a 6.3 percent rate on everything else by a 25-14 vote Thursday, while rejecting by voice vote an amendment to adopt the House's previous offer.
"Based on last night's vote on a similar measure I don't see that it has substantial support," Bruce said. "Things can change over the weekend, but more than anything this was just an opportunity to move a plan the House has been insistent on for the last couple weeks. We'll see where they are and if they can move it over to us and then we will give it consideration and debate it hopefully some time Tuesday afternoon."Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said the plan's 50 percent reduction in the charitable giving income tax deduction by 2018 would be difficult for the Senate to swallow. Bruce replaced Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee Chairman Les Donovan, R-Wichita. Donovan left for a long-planned family vacation Thursday night, but not before speaking ominously about the possibility of the conference committee still meeting when he returns June 1.Tyson moved up to chair the Senate's side of the negotiations Friday morning and said she hoped to find common ground quickly.Carlson said the House's 5-109 vote on the Senate plan hadn’t made the path forward completely clear."It showed what we're not for," Carlson said. "Now we have to determine what we are for."Carlson came back Friday afternoon with yet another plan with a 6.0 percent sales tax. It phases down the top income tax rate from 4.9 percent to 3.5 percent by fiscal year 2018, but nearly all of the reduction comes the final year. Reductions in the state's lower rate come more quickly.House negotiators budged weeks ago from their original position of allowing the entire sales tax extension to fall to 5.7 percent and balancing the budget by cutting spending and slowing the Senate's proposed cuts on Gov. Sam Brownback's "glide path to zero" income tax.Senate counteroffers have included splitting out and reducing the sales tax on food and another for a 6.25 percent overall rate.The two sides got into some detail Friday, with Carlson saying he didn't believe the two-rate sales tax plan had enough votes to pass his chamber and that reductions in the standard deduction did, but barely.Carlson said his chamber was turned off by Senate proposals that created revenue by eliminating most itemized deductions at a faster rate than the income tax and said it would likely insist on a 2 percent tax revenue growth cap as a way to curb government largesse.
Governor's appeal fails as House downs tax planSenate GOP condemns House adjournment for holidayPosted: May 24, 2013 - 9:52am
By Tim Carpenter
The House overwhelmingly denounced Friday the latest tax reform plan passed by the Senate and endorsed by Gov. Sam Brownback, throwing the 2013 session into a deeper tailspin entering the Memorial Day weekend.Grinding disagreement on the proper sales tax rate to accommodate reductions in Kansas individual income taxes has yet to be resolved despite four months of wrangling by the legislative and executive branches of state government. The House, Senate and governor's office are all led by Republicans.Brownback has persistently sought to make permanent a general sales tax of 6.3 percent by repealing a state law dropping the rate to 5.7 percent in July. The Senate agreed with the governor, but GOP House leaders have offered an alternative that would set the rate no higher than 6 percent. Consumers have been swallowing a sales tax of 6.3 percent since 2010, but legislation signed by a Democratic governor placed the elevated rate on the books for no more than three years.On the 91st day of the session, the House voted 5-109 against the Senate-Brownback tax bill that would push the Kansas retail sales tax rate to 6.3 percent but would peg the sales tax rate on food at 4.95 percent. The Senate had passed this tax measure on Thursday.House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, led Republican opposition to the bill, which would have raised an estimated $824 million in new tax revenue over the next five years. This escalation in the tax load, by virtue of the Senate's higher sales tax and elimination of tax deductions, would reach Kansans before they would feel the full impact of income tax cuts adopted in 2012 or supplemental reductions sought by lawmakers.Merrick said the House simply had a different vision of tax reform than the Senate."The House has been pushing to move the debate forward, and the citizens of Kansas deserve sound, well-thought-out policy," Merrick said. "It is now clear the Senate must return to the negotiating table and make good-faith efforts to reach a compromise." On Friday afternoon, House and Senate negotiators surprisingly agreed on a tax plan that would place the sales tax at 6 percent. This bill is expected to be placed next week before the full House and Senate.House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, said the House vote on Friday morning demonstrated the Legislature was nearing a "full-on meltdown." Twenty-four senators voted for the bill modifying the sales taxes and removing tax breaks, but the House could attract only five people to that solution."The Legislature seems to be getting farther and farther away from a solution," Davis said. "Everything, I think, goes back to the big mistake Governor Brownback made last year. It's sort of like a wound where the Band-Aid just won't stick."He said the 2012 income tax cuts were far too aggressive and prompted demand for additional tax revenue to fill a crater in the budget.The House adjourned Friday after the tax vote for the Memorial Day weekend, and the Senate followed later in the morning.
"We didn't expect the House to adjourn for the weekend, but that's happened," said Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita. "This is a little like a big family reunion that happens once a year. You put everybody together in a room and you start talking and you learn there are differences of opinion."Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, said lack of final action on pivotal elements of this year's session — tax reform and the budget — didn't warrant a break by the 165 legislators. He said "quite frankly, the Legislature doesn't deserve to go home for the weekend."Bruce said friction between the House and Senate on tax policy reflected the large number of freshmen in the House. The learning curve on tax legislation is significant, he said, and grasping complexities was daunting."Most of them spent half of the session trying to find where the bathrooms are," Bruce said. "And we're asking them to change state policy for a generation. That's an intimidating task. That has slowed it down."Brownback made a personal appeal prior to the House vote, hosting legislators for a morning coffee. He also emailed a statement Thursday night announcing his endorsement of the latest Senate tax bill adopted with Democratic support.In 2010, the Legislature approved a three-year, 1-cent increase in the Kansas sales tax to help resolve a budget deficit. It was schedule to sunset on July 1, 2013. All proposals designed to perpetuate a sales tax above 5.7 percent have been blasted by Democrats in the House and Senate.
KDOC secretary opposes $12.5M cut to prison budgetProvisions may curtail supervision of paroled sex offendersPosted: May 24, 2013 - 3:52pm
By Tim Carpenter
The secretary of the Kansas prison system circulated a memorandum Friday advising legislators a proposed $12.5 million budget cut could compromise supervision of sex offenders on parole and undermine mental health and substance abuse treatment for inmates.Ray Roberts, secretary of the Kansas Department of Corrections, said the budget plan pending in the House and Senate had the potential to increase long-term costs to the state and result in "increased victimization of Kansans."The bill contains $8.1 million in "fictional savings" earmarked to cover ongoing corrections expenditures, Roberts said. In the "justice reinvestment act," he said, there is $400,000 in real savings to the prison system.He said the bill would impose a salary cap stripping $4.1 million from KDOC, which contradicts Gov. Sam Brownback's move in the past year to expand state funding for salaries of underpaid corrections officers.
If the overall $14 billion state budget were to become law, Roberts said, a consequence could be closure of the 128-bed Stockton Correctional Facility in northwest Kansas. Distribution of those inmates elsewhere in the state would trigger demand one year earlier for a $23 million expansion of El Dorado Correctional Facility. The 1,500-bed prison is at capacity. Roberts' potential spending reductions included limiting parole supervision activities to high-risk offenders. That would leave low- and medium-risk offenders, which includes sex offenders, unsupervised."It seems to be a recipe for disaster," said Jeremy Barclay, spokesman for Roberts. "Governor Brownback has always been exceptionally supportive of public safety."However, Barclay said, the budget negotiated by a six-member House-Senate conference committee would "result in a less-safe Kansas."No date has been set for the full House and Senate to vote on the budget deal. Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, said the corrections piece of the budget was causing heartburn among some lawmakers. However, he said, prison funding wasn't the only element of the bill prompting calls for adjustments prior to adjournment of the 2013 legislative session.House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, said the squeezing of state agency budgets was an outgrowth of the income tax bill passed in 2012 by Republicans and signed into law by Brownback.The campaign by GOP lawmakers to drive Kansas personal income taxes to zero is starting to stretch operating budgets for essential services to a breaking point, Davis said."This is what happens when a governor pushes through a reckless income tax plan that has left state agencies unable to deliver core services," Davis said. "One of those being making sure registered sex offenders are supervised."Under the House and Senate budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, Roberts said the agency would be forced to consider shrinking funding of community services that would result in layoff of county and state employees.He said the KDOC would have fewer resources to meet inmate demand for mental health services and substance abuse treatment. He said 38 percent of inmates were challenged by mental illness, while 66 percent had substance abuse issues.The agency could be compelled, Roberts said, to start construction of the addition at El Dorado one year earlier than planned. That would move up the state's obligation for $8.3 million in annual operating funds, he said.
Bring home the bacon: Budget funds staff hikes, golf eventsBipartisan criticism of efforts of budget committee chairmenPosted: May 23, 2013 - 4:01pm
By Tim Carpenter
A bipartisan group of legislators eagerly lined up to take shots Thursday at provisions of the new proposed budget for state government that would funnel tax dollars to expand staff payroll of the Republican House and Senate budget chairmen and to invest in golf tournaments in Kansas.Dismay at inclusion of these elements in the $14 billion budget derived from consternation with a message being sent to taxpayers that earmarking $50,000 for legislative personnel and $85,000 for golf tournaments in Wichita and Newton were higher priorities than requests turned aside during the session.Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover, and Rep. Marc Rhoades, R-Newton, chair their respective budget committees. The bill would allow each chairman, for the first time, to employ a staff aide throughout the year rather than just during the annual session. Masterson's current chief of staff is his former campaign manager. Rhoades’ top staffer is the spouse of a former House speaker now working as president of the Kansas Chamber."We're trying to find jobs for our friends and relatives?" asked Rep. Bob Grant, a Frontenac Democrat.No other committee staff expansions were included in the budget bill, and no other golf tournaments in Kansas would receive a state subsidy by virtue of the measure.Masterson said funding for staff payroll adjustments would be drawn from existing allocations to legislative leadership. The 5 percent "haircut" to tax dollars available to the House speaker and Senate president would cover the expanded role of employees in offices of the budget chairmen, he said."It comes from the leadership budget," Masterson said.Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka, said she was concerned the budget chairmen were willing to take care of their own employees but deflect proposals to properly finance the fifth year of a program to raise wages of state government workers found to be far below market rate.Rhoades said the supplemental staffing would help coordinate interim committee work — extensive examination of higher education budgets, for example — to prepare for the upcoming legislative session.In terms of the golf tournaments, Rhoades said investing state gambling proceeds in the professional events was fiscally sound because they were expected to collectively generate more than $2.5 million in economic benefit."It sends the wrong message to the people of Kansas about what our priorities are," said Rep. Jerry Henry, a Cummings Democrat and ranking minority member on the House Appropriations Committee. "The golf tournaments should rely on private sponsorships instead of taxpayer sponsorships.""I certainly do not support them," Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, said of the budget items. "They do not epitomize fiscal responsibility, from my perspective."The end-of-session budget bill has yet to be voted on by the House and Senate, which has been sidetracked by debate on lowering income taxes and raising the sales tax rate. The budget does contain a 1.5 percent cut for state universities.
Under the bill, the state would invest $45,000 in the Air Capital Classic at Crestview Country Club in Wichita. The June tournament, which recently lost its main corporate sponsor, generates about $700,000 in business activity, Rhoades said.The legislation earmarks $40,000 to the 2014 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at Sand Creek Station Golf Course in Newton. Rhoades said this tournament, which would be played in his district, could churn as much as $2 million in economic benefits."This is the Washington model for gaining stature in your own community — bringing home the bacon," said Rep. Nile Dillmore, D-Wichita. "It's just completely unjustified in our opinion that we spend any money supporting golf tournaments."Due to procedure in the House and Senate, members will be allowed to vote for or against the overall compromise worked out by negotiators from both chambers. There will be no opportunity to strip out the staff salary and golf tournament components.
Last day of negotiations yields no tax compromiseTalks at a stalemate, Senate may run tax bill of its own, seek House concurencePosted: May 23, 2013 - 10:05am
By Andy Marso
With tax negotiations at a standstill and the session in its final day the Senate offered a new path out of town: vote on both chambers' tax plans and see what sticks.Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, came back to the negotiating table just before lunch and proposed that the Senate vote on its plan for a 6.3 percent sales tax that drops to 4.95 percent on food July 1 and the House vote on its compromise for a 6.0 percent sales tax. Then the chambers swap to see if either plan can pass both houses."We're trying to give both houses options," Donovan said. "I don't know what we can pass."If neither plan passes both chambers, Donovan said that would lock in negotiators on a 6.15 percent sales tax that has Gov. Sam Brownback's approval.But Donovan's counterpart in leading the tax negotiations, Rep. Richard Carlson, R-St. Marys, came back later and said no deal."At this point in time the House would respectfully decline," Carlson said. "We feel a test vote is important but we don't feel that would be an accurate vote if people know another bill is coming down the line."Meanwhile budget negotiators signed a deal over Democratic objections, opening up the possibility of vote on a budget, which is the only statutory obstacle to adjourning the session. But Senate leaders have insisted they will not vote on a budget until a tax plan that shores up projected future deficits is passed.
The Senate's tax-vote proposal was meant to jump-start tax action after negotiations crumbled Thursday morning. House negotiators held fast to their offer of a 6.0 percent sales tax and said Senate leaders undermined the talks by scheduling a vote on their tax bill."We were very disappointed the Senate leadership put a tax bill on their agenda," Carlson said. "That bypasses the conference committee process."Donovan, R-Wichita, promised to convey that message to his leadership, but also said the Senate needed a higher sales tax to vote for the bill, so there was little hope of reaching a deal if the House would not budge."I was expecting movement on the sales tax rate up from 6.0," Donovan said. "I can't tell you how disappointed I am not to see that."The Senate has come down from its original proposal of keeping the existing 6.3 percent sales tax rate and offered 6.25 percent, while the House has come up to 6.0 percent from its original preference of sticking with current law, which automatically drops the sales tax rate to 5.7 percent on July 1."We have come half way," Carlson said.Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, said neither chamber's plan would get any Democratic votes unless unless they made an abrupt about-face and agreed to "repeal the income tax cuts that were done last year.""They're shifting the tax burden to lower and middle income earners to make this work," Holland said of both chamber's offers.Donovan said he understands the dynamics of negotiating, but stressed that the six-member conference committee's work would come to nothing if it could not find a plan that will garner the support of both chambers and Brownback, a staunch advocate of keeping the sales tax at 6.3 percent."If we don't get that (support), whatever we put out here doesn't amount to anything," Donovan said. "We have to get the governor to agree as well."The inability to find a plan that will get three-way approval appears likely to send the session into overtime, at a cost of approximately $45,000 per day. Some support staff has already been sent home.The way out, Carlson said, could depend on what type of tax bill the Senate runs Thursday afternoon."If it's a bill we can live with, we could possibly concur," Carlson said.But when the Senate convened Thursday morning, Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, said "we do not know when or if that bill will run on general orders this afternoon" and called it a "contingency plan.""The howitzer is present, it's just not loaded," Bruce said, saying he was quoting Donovan.But after Carlson declined the dual-vote offer, Donovan said it might be time to load the howitzer."From what I gather they will proceed in running a tax bill," Donovan said of Senate leadership. "We'll get that teed up."
Donovan, leaving for vacation Thursday evening, raised the prospects of the chambers still deadlocked on taxes when he returns June 1.
Tax deal remains elusive heading toward Day 90House stands firm with 6% sales tax in budget talksPosted: May 22, 2013 - 10:04am
By Andy Marso
Tax negotiations stalled again Wednesday afternoon, dimming the prospects of the Legislature finishing in the statutory 90 days.Senate negotiators put a proposal on the table that attempted to mollify House members' concerns about extending a sales tax increase by eliminating the increase on food.But House Taxation Committee Chairman Richard Carlson returned without an agreement or a counterproposal, saying it was becoming a "complicated procedure in trying to get everybody on board at the same time" in the House.The two sides agreed to meet again 9:30 a.m. Thursday.Gov. Sam Brownback urged a speedy resolution."The Kansas Legislature has accomplished a great deal of work during the 2013 session," Brownback said. "We have set the stage for economic growth in our state and are on the path to lowering the tax burden on all Kansans. Tomorrow is the 90th day. It is time to wrap up the session."The chambers are largely haggling over whether to pay for last year's income tax cuts — and buy more — by extending a 0.6 of a percent sales tax (the Senate and Brownback's position) or with budget cuts (the House's position).Under current law, the sales tax will drop from 6.3 percent to 5.7 percent on July 1. The House offered a compromise of 6.0 percent to get negotiations going and, after several days, the Senate came back Tuesday with an offer of 6.25 percent.House negotiators came to the table Wednesday morning with a proposal that agreed on some items but didn’t budge from their earlier compromise of a 6 percent sales tax.Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee Chairman Les Donovan, R-Wichita, came back with a counteroffer hours later that suggested some room for compromise on his side."We hold at 6.25 (percent) sales tax rate, except on food, and we lower the rate on food to 5.7 percent," Donovan said. "Back to the old rate, so to speak.""I think the lower tax on food would have a great deal of appeal to certainly many people and therefore have a great deal of appeal to new members of the House and Senate," Donovan also said.
But Democrats have expressed little enthusiasm for voting for any tax increase to help close the budget chasm caused by income tax cuts they didn't vote for last year."I don't see, if you're in the House, why you want to support a sales tax increase," said Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, contradicting his chamber's official position in the negotiations.That leaves Republican leaders struggling to find a compromise they can pass in both chambers despite super majorities.Though the two sides remained at the same chasm on sales tax, they agreed on items like a reduction in the standard deduction and an elimination of deductions of gambling losses. Carlson, R-St. Marys, called the Senate proposal still on the table a "good-faith offer.""We'll take a look at it," Carlson said, adding that he wanted to examine the food sales tax portion closely.Carlson initially said he hoped a deal could be reached Wednesday, but by the afternoon acknowledged the two sides were "pretty far apart in terms of 6.0 and 6.25 (percent)" on the sales tax.Rep. Joshua Powell, R-Topeka, was one of several House members who watched the negotiations throughout the day."It's frustrating," Powell said of heading into Day 90 without a compact.Legislators could pass a budget and adjourn without a tax plan, but Senate leaders have been adamantly opposed to that because it would drain reserves and cause ballooning deficits.Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover, raised the prospect of attempting to get a budget vote just to force some action."Part of this is to get off dead center," Masterson said.The main disagreements on budget have come on higher education, which the House had proposed cutting by 4 percent and the Senate proposed cutting by 2 percent. A compromise has been struck for 1.5 percent cuts in each of the next two years, but Brownback has advocated no cuts.When asked if the governor could veto the cuts, Masterson, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee said "the way it's structured now, he can not." Masterson said Brownback's only option would be to delete the entire appropriation for higher education.The budget compromise includes $3.5 million in seed money for a Kansas Bureau of Investigation crime laboratory at Washburn University, the funds coming from a Department of Transportation loan. It doesn’t include the fifth of five promised raises for underpaid state employees.
Frustrated Kansas lawmakers hatch tax alternatives
House, Senate gridlock inspires freshmen to explore remediesPosted: May 21, 2013 - 1:05pm
By Tim Carpenter
The numbers game engulfing the Legislature's tax debate became more complex Tuesday with the release of a new alternative from Republican freshmen that preserves personal income tax cuts while extending an olive branch by trimming the sales tax on food.Presentation of the trial balloon to more than 40 House and Senate members during an informal caucus demonstrated frustration with negotiations among the chambers' leadership on alignment of income and sales tax policy that can secure majority votes and the signature of Gov. Sam Brownback.Lack of clear consensus led Rep. Mark Hutton, R-Wichita, to unveil a proposal that would place the statewide sales tax at 6.25 percent, with a 4.95 percent sales tax on food; reduce standardized deductions for state income tax purposes; and perpetuate a plan for slowly reducing Kansas' personal income tax.This new proposal, as well as those previously touted by the House and Senate, would all cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars annually in revenue."I'm pretty sure everybody's going to find something they hate," said Hutton, who indicated the blueprint was drafted by House and Senate GOP members.Gridlock in the 2013 session is driven by the desire of Brownback and the Senate to stick with a 6.3 percent sales tax, which would generate $257 million annually to finance aggressive reductions in business and personal income taxes approved by the 2012 Legislature. The sales tax is scheduled to fall to 5.7 percent in July.The House would prefer to let the sales tax recede in accordance with a 2010 law, make deeper spending cuts in higher education and earmark new revenue to rollbacks in the Kansas income tax. In the spirit of compromise, the House proposed a 6 percent sales tax rate. The Senate didn't accept the offer.Many Democrats object to perpetuation of the elevated sales tax rate and to proposals for reducing state spending. There is sentiment among the minority party to repeal the 2012 tax reform bill and put forward an alternative that brings into revenue harmony the income, sales and property tax collections.Reaction at the GOP caucus to Hutton's appeal could be summarized as mixed, with several House Republicans wondering aloud why the Legislature hadn't considered adoption of a "fair tax" system that dramatically expanded the reach of the state sales tax and quickly eliminated the state income tax.Rep. John Bradford, R-Lansing, said the fair tax concept — it didn't receive a hearing this session in the GOP-controlled House and Senate — would make Kansas the revolutionary leaders of the consumption tax.He said lawmakers should pass a new budget for state government, ignore Brownback's plea for immediate tax reform and return in 2014 with a fine-tuned bill dedicated to the fair tax.
"To me," Bradford said, "it just makes sense to just do it."
House speaker calls on Senate for counter-offerSenate president unimpressed by House leader's appealPosted: May 20, 2013 - 8:51am
By Tim Carpenter
House Speaker Ray Merrick attempted to move the policy ball forward Monday in a gridlocked session by urging the Senate to return to the negotiating table with a good-faith compromise offer on tax issues holding up a final budget."You can't negotiate if there's not a counter-offer, and that's where we are," he said. "We're working on assumptions right now we think are right but until the tax plan is agreed on, the budget is just a guess. We need the tax plan, and that's the thing we're missing."However, Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, responded by ignoring Merrick's appeal for renewal of negotiations on sales and income tax policy and suggesting her GOP rival wasn't negotiating in good faith on the budget. She accused him of impeding progress on a new $14 billion budget for state government.“The Senate called the House bluff last week," she said. "Our Senate negotiators met Friday and offered to accept the entire House budget on the simple condition they would run the agreement in their chamber first. Unfortunately, this is the result we anticipated. They will do anything to prevent a vote on the House floor.”If Merrick opened the House floor to regular action on the budget, an attempt could be made to concur with the Senate's tax bill.Pressure is mounting on Republican leaders in the House and Senate to settle on an exit strategy with the scheduled end of the Legislature's 90-day calendar drawing near. For months, the House and Senate has championed rival plans on the budget and for shifting the tax burden. The unresolved issue involves setting a sales tax rate capable of helping the state reduce personal income tax rates.Merrick, a Stilwell Republican, said the Senate and Gov. Sam Brownback's goal of securing a 6.3 percent statewide sales tax didn't comply with the House's preference for dropping the rate to 5.7 percent on July 1 in accordance with a law adopted in 2010.Democrats, moderate Republicans and Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson formed the coalition that raised the sales tax for three years to fill a budget hole triggered by the economic recession. Now, it is a Republican governor pushing to sustain the elevated tax.Last week, the House offered to place the sales tax at 6 percent if the maneuver was tied to provisions orchestrating the sequence of future income tax cuts and maintenance of strong cash reserves.
The Senate and Brownback didn't bite, because they remain committed to the whole 0.6 percent, or $260 million, in sales tax to advance their plan to shrink personal income tax rates to zero.Without the supplemental revenue derived from sales taxes the state government would be running downhill toward a deficit in 2014.Merrick said the solution to differences in a budget for the upcoming fiscal year would fall into place after the tax puzzle was pieced together.“At this point, it’s clear that the hold up in the session is the tax plan,” he said. “The House has waited six days for a Senate tax offer. Once the tax plan is agreed upon, we can ensure that the statutory requirements of the budget are met.”The House and Senate convened briefly Monday before adjourning until Tuesday.
No-tax pledges factor in legislative impasseHouse budget chairman says some members concerned about violating pledge with sales tax votePosted: May 18, 2013 - 4:17pm
By Andy Marso
Controversial "no-tax" pledges are playing a role in the Legislature's inability to compromise on a tax and budget plan that could end the session and may actually serve to impede the reduction of one sort of tax.Republicans held the first joint House-Senate caucus in memory last week to try to lodge loose the boulders blocking a deal. During the discussions, House Appropriations Committee chairman Marc Rhoades, R-Newton, emphasized that leadership wasn't trying to be difficult in opposing a sales tax extension, but merely looking for a plan that can get 63 votes in a chamber in which "some people have signed pledges.""Some of our members have signed promises that they will not raise taxes," House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell said. "However there are many members who signed no such pledge but still support the House tax plan because it’s a fair, balanced approach that lowers the overall tax burden on Kansans."Both chambers are staunchly conservative and many senators have signed the same pledges as their House counterparts. But with the exception of a few, most senators who signed the pledges voted for Gov. Sam Brownback's plan to extend a sales tax increase, saying the vote could still comply with the pledge because it is part of Brownback's long-term vision of a "glide path to zero" income tax.Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, said she and others had received a dispensation from “the gentleman who takes the tax pledges," Grover Norquist, who
specifically stated that voting for the sales tax increase wouldn’t violate the pledge in that context.But the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" floated by Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, is only one of the tax-prohibiting compacts conservative non-profits compel legislators to sign. Fifteen House members have signed onto a separate pledge administered by Americans for Prosperity, and that group has thus far proved less forgiving.Lest there be any doubt about his organization's stance on extending the sales tax, AFP Kansas state director Jeff Glendening penned a letter to the editor that appeared in The Topeka Capital-Journal."In our 2013 Legislative Agenda, we state that we do not support retaining the sales tax at its current level of 6.3 percent," Glendening wrote. "A high sales tax rate is especially damaging to our state’s revenue collections when one considers that a third of our state’s population resides in a county that borders Missouri, a state with a state sales tax rate of around 4 percent. Additionally, we contend that retaining the sales tax rate at its current level is simply an excuse to avoid reducing state spending."If money is the marker of influence, then AFP's opinion on the tax plan carries far more weight in Kansas than Norquist's.For tax purposes AFP claims to be a "social welfare" non-profit rather than a political organization and therefore isn’t required to disclose its donors. But Forbes and a slew of other media outlets have tied the organization to billionaire oil and gas magnate brothers Charles and David Koch, of Wichita.AFP flooded mailboxes and airwaves with a "voter education" campaign during last fall's elections, but wasn’t required to disclose how much it spent.Before he went to work for AFP this year, though, Glendening lobbied for the Kansas Chamber, and the depth of his previous employer's political pockets is more open to scrutiny. Campaign finance reports show the chamber's political action committee doling out about $1 million last cycle.AFP's pledge bars legislators from voting for any plan that will "increase the tax burden" and Glendening said Friday there is room for legislators to stay within the pledge and vote for the sales tax — but only if there are off-setting income tax cuts.Glendening didn't say whether those cuts must come immediately, or down the road like in the Senate plan."I think you have to look at the overall plan," Glendening said. "But I can't overemphasize this enough: we are opposed to the sales tax increase."The insistence on a plan that lowers the overall tax burden this year, even after a year in which the state cut income tax drastically, is one that has taken hold with a cadre of House Republicans, some of whom are locked into the AFP pledge."We need to go back to our people this session and say 'if we keep some sales tax, we're getting corresponding cuts in income tax,'" Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady, R-Palco, who signed the pledge, said."That's the problem (with the Senate plan)," said. Rep. J.R. Claeys, R-Salina, who was standing nearby."It doesn't correspond. It's 'tax-and-spend,' which is generally followed by the word 'liberal.' "
Claeys, who didn’t sign the AFP pledge, and eight other House Republicans who have thus far staunchly opposed the sales tax extension, met with Brownback on Friday.Couture-Lovelady said he told the governor he agrees with the overall vision of the tax plan and with the philosophy that sales tax is less burdensome to economic growth than income tax, but under Brownback's plan "it's too long before we get more income tax cuts."Rep. Ron Highland, R-Wamego, said he was also in the meeting and had a similar opinion."You've got to do what's best for your constituents in the state of Kansas," Highland said. "But my philosophy hasn't changed. My constituents are telling me they want their taxes to come down. I have to respect that. They would also like to see our government downsized."
Federal cuts announced for poorest Kansas schoolsShawnee Co. schools to lose more than $800K; 21 schools affected in 501Posted: May 23, 2013 - 3:28pm
By Celia Llopis-Jepsen
School districts across the state received word Thursday of significant cuts to federal funding reserved for the highest-poverty schools.Statewide, Kansas school districts are facing a preliminary loss of about 7.2 percent in the federal money, called Title I funds. That totals $7.2 million, effective for the coming school year.In Shawnee County, school districts will lose more than $800,000, with the biggest cuts in Topeka Unified School District 501, which has 21 schools that receive Title I funding based on the poverty levels of their student bodies.“It’s devastating,” said Tammy Austin, executive director of administration for USD 501. “What’s difficult is you’re expecting something, and then it’s not there, and something’s got to give.”All 17 elementary schools in USD 501 receive Title I funding, in addition to three middle schools — Eisenhower, Chase and Robinson — and, as of next school year, Highland Park High School.Of the Shawnee County districts, USD 501 will lose about $676,800. Shawnee Heights USD 450 will lose about $47,700; Silver Lake USD 372, $5,800; Seaman USD 345, $52,900; and Auburn-Washburn USD 437, $40,900.Austin said USD 501’s cuts were equivalent to 13 teachers’ salaries and benefits.In a letter notifying school districts of the reductions, the Kansas State Department of Education, which is facing its own cuts in Title I funds, described the losses as “major.”
According to the department, 5 percent was cut due to the federal sequestration and 0.2 of a percent due to a smaller total allocation from Congress.Other factors included national poverty figures. The federal government distributes Congress’ Title I allocation based on poverty data, which hadn’t grown in Kansas as much as most other states. That had the effect of shrinking Kansas’ share.Title I funding pays for teaching staff and services at high-poverty schools, including extra mathematics and reading teachers who focus on helping children who are behind academically. It also pays for after-school programs.With the ongoing federal sequester, school districts had been bracing for reductions, but the cuts announced Thursday were deeper than expected.Austin said USD 501 had been planning for a potential loss of 8 percent of its Title I money but is now losing 9.25 percent. The district had expected to absorb cuts through attrition of staff and still hopes that will be possible, but it hasn’t had time to assess the situation.“We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board, and it’s so late in the game,” she said.USD 437 superintendent Brenda Dietrich said the precise impact to her district wasn’t clear yet.“It is going to require us to analyze our current expenditures and make some decisions based on where the greatest need is,” Dietrich said, “and then link the dollars we have left to fund our priorities.”Dietrich said her district’s losses may not sound tremendous to some people, “but the Title I budget is very tight and most of the allocation funds salaries.”The state education department itself also is losing $44,000 in Title I funding for administration of programs.The department said the cuts also mean $1.4 million less in funding used to help schools that are struggling academically. That funding goes to schools that either have low scores on state math and reading tests or wide achievement gaps in their student body.
Push to stop Common Core not overAn effort is underway in the House to trade conservative votes on a tax deal for reviving a bill to stop the Common CorePosted: May 22, 2013 - 4:37pm
By Celia Llopis-Jepsen
In the latest chapter of a battle over teaching standards in Kansas schools, a proviso to cut funding for the Common Core mathematics and English standards has been dropped from the proposed state budget.
But the matter may not be over, as the chairman of the House Taxation Committee said Wednesday that House leaders were considering reviving a separate bill to stop the Common Core in return for votes from conservative House members on a tax deal.“That’s a leadership decision that will be made based on what’s the best avenue to go,” Rep. Richard Carlson said of the possible deal.Negotiators from the House and Senate moved forward Tuesday with a state budget that excluded a proviso on the Common Core introduced by Sen. Ty Masterson last week. The proviso would have barred school districts and the Kansas State Department of Education from using state money to implement the standards, which critics consider a backdoor attempt by the federal government to create a national curriculum.The proviso also would have banned spending on annual math and English tests related to the standards and on the Next Generation Science Standards that the Kansas State Board of Education is likely to adopt this summer.Rep. John Bradford, who has spearheaded a campaign to stop the Common Core, said Wednesday he was convinced the House would defund the standards if given the chance.“I feel confident that at this point, if we vote, we can kill Common Core,” he said.Bradford, who also introduced a bill earlier this session to defund the standards, said he and others spent Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning polling House members on the phone and in person, and that the majority had said they oppose the Common Core.He said he didn’t know anything about a potential deal related to the tax issue, but that Rep. Marc Rhoades, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee had omitted the Common Core proviso from the budget proposal because he was concerned there wasn’t enough support for it.“So I told Marc, I have the support.” Bradford said. “And he said, ‘I need 63 votes,’ and I said I will go find 63 people who will vote for this.”Bradford said Rhoades also suggested it might be better to handle the Common Core matter separately from the budget. Bradford said he was comfortable with that.“I don’t care how it gets done,” Bradford said. “My point is this is an issue and it deserves a vote on the floor.”Proponents of the Common Core have challenged opponents to point out specific deficiencies in the standards, which they say promote more rigorous math and English education.Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said dropping the proviso was the correct move.“The bottom line is, we thought this provision was unclear and unworkable,” Tallman said.He cited as an example Auburn-Washburn Unified School District 437, which recently approved a new math curriculum and teaching materials that fit the Common Core standards.“Does that (proviso) mean they couldn’t do that?” he asked.
Tallman said school boards haven’t been expressing any concerns to him about the quality of the standards.More than 40 states have adopted the Common Core standards. Kansas did so in 2010. The standards arose out of two associations — the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers — and the federal government has thrown its support behind the initiative by providing grants to two consortiums developing math and English tests to match them.
Deadlocked legislative session headed for overtimeSenate passes own tax plan but House adjourns as negotiations stallPosted: May 23, 2013 - 2:30pm
By Andy Marso
A session that legislative leaders promised would wrap up within 80 days now appears headed past the statutory limit of 90, as the House adjourned until Friday morning without a deal on taxes or budget.Last-ditch attempts to negotiate a compromise on whether to let a temporary sales tax expire (the House position) or keep the rate at the current 6.3 percent (the Senate and Gov. Sam Brownback's position) failed and the House was unmoved by senators' threat to run their own tax bill and seek a House concur.The Senate did so Thursday night, passing House Bill 2084 by 24-15 vote after three hours of debate and garnering praise from Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita."This bill, when passed by the House, will grow jobs in Kansas," Wagle said.The vote came shortly after the Senate voted down the House's last negotiating offer — a 6.0 percent sales tax — on a voice vote. Senate Vice President Jeff King, R-Independence, brought the House's plan to the floor with no intent to vote for it.“We wanted to give the opportunity for their plan to have consideration and have a vote in the only chamber which we have any control over, which is our own,” King said.The bill that passed the Senate continues income tax cuts that began last year, part of Gov. Sam Brownback's "glide path to zero" income tax, projected to cause large deficits without the sales tax extension. The plan keeps the overall sales tax at 6.3 percent, but reduces it on groceries to 4.95 percent.The lower grocery tax is an attempt to woo House members and passed unanimously despite complaints from Sen. Jeff Melcher, R-Leawood, that it added "social engineering" to the sales tax code.The new rate on food would go into effect Jan. 1, 2014, per an amendment offered by Sen. Kay Wolf, R-Prairie Village, that she said would give retailers more time to prepare for the switch.
An amendment offered by Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka, to restore a tax credit for Kansans making their homes accessible after suffering a disability.Senate leaders opposed the amendment, saying they did not want to add any credits to the tax code that could hinder the march to zero income tax, and Melcher again raised the specter of social engineering.But enough senators joined Schmidt in supporting the credit, which Schmidt said costs the state $34,000 a year.“While clearly the dollar amount and claims appear relatively low, the program does provide assistance to Kansans who want to maintain their independence and avoid institutional care,” Schmidt said.A second amendment by Schmidt to restore Industrial Revenue Bonds failed, as did attempts by Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, to restore the home mortgage deduction and the property tax deduction.A proposal by Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, to eliminate the food sales tax failed.The Senate bill eliminates those deductions entirely by Fiscal Year 2018, while some income tax will remain. The proposed rates gradually drop over five years to 3.5 percent and 2.5 percent.Holland said that between the elimination of the credits and deductions and the sales tax extension, the bill would raise more than $800 million in revenue.“Make no mistake about this: this is a tax increase bill,” Holland said.Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker, who carried the bill to floor, disagreed.“We see this as an overall tax cut," Tyson said. "It will cut considerably on the income tax cut for individuals and actually helps with the food sales tax too.”Whether the plan has any chance in the House remains to be seen.Sen. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona, asked Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson that question before the bill debate."I’m thinking it’s got some legs," Bruce said, adding that House members had approached him desperate for a session exit ramp.There was not enough desperation to keep the House in the chamber Thursday, though.During an afternoon caucus, House Republicans asked whether they would have sufficient time to review Senate's bill before voting for it and House Majority Leader Jene Vickrey, R-Louisburg, said that was a priority.“We don’t want anyone to vote 'yes' or 'no' without understanding what is in that conference committee report,” Vickrey said.Minutes later the House went to the floor and adjourned until Friday, effectively ending prospects of closing the session in 90 days.Rep. Michael Houser, R- Columbus, said it was the right call."I would rather be able to understand what’s coming up and vote on what’s good for the state versus trying to rush something through just to pass it on the 90th day," Houser said. "I say, let’s take the time to do it right.”
Budget negotiators signed a deal over Democratic objections, opening up the possibility of vote on a budget, which is the only statutory obstacle to adjourning the session. But Senate leaders have insisted they will not vote on a budget until a tax plan that shores up projected future deficits is passed
House passes liquor bill with art tastings allowanceBill that would restore wine samples to First Fridays headed to governorPosted: May 22, 2013 - 2:32pm
By Andy Marso
The delay in finding a tax and budget plan to close the 2013 session appears to have given the Legislature enough time to save wine samples at Topeka's First Fridays art walk.The House passed a bill Wednesday that included a provision allowing alcohol tastings at nonprofit events benefiting the arts. Topeka senators introduced the measure in response to the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control cracking down last year after receiving complaints about Topeka galleries distributing free samples last year."I am very excited that this passed," Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka, said. "This has been the culmination of several months of work with the Department of Revenue, ABC and all the interested parties in the arts walk, as well as the House and Senate Federal and State Affairs Committees."Schmidt said she was pleased the bill moved forward "with the agreement of all parties" and that compromise was key.The arts measure came attached to other minor alcohol reforms in House Bill 2199, which passed the House 89-23. It passed the Senate 39-0 last week and is now available for Gov. Sam Brownback to sign into law.Under the bill, nonprofit groups promoting the arts can distribute alcohol samples if they have permission from local government and pay the corresponding amount of tax that the drinks would have accrued if sold.Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, R-Olathe, said the bill also mandated that every administrative notice or fine must be settled within 90 days of issuance.“So the business owners are not required to hang out over 90 days to find out what’s going to happen,” Siegfreid said.The bill also allows for hotels to give patrons drink coupons for use either on-premises or under agreement with licensed clubs, if they pay the corresponding tax, and allows for the sale of 64-ounce pitchers of mixed drinks.The bill tightens some regulations on who may work at venues licensed to sell liquor, barring anyone who has been found guilty twice of selling alcohol to minors or three times of any other alcohol-related offense.
After sending it back to committee for changes twice, the House gave the bill bipartisan support Wednesday."Third time's the charm on this," said Rep. Louis Ruiz, D-Kansas City.The bill was also notable for what it didn’t include: allowing alcohol consumption in the Capitol, self-service machines in casinos and full-strength beer and liquor sales in grocery stores and convenience stores.With the current session at Day 89, those measures may be on tap for next year.
KPERS bill expands police and fire pensionsMeasure rewards first responders who stay on the jobPosted: May 21, 2013 - 11:13am
By Andy Marso
Much of the Legislature's work has stalled amid tax and budget wrangling since lawmakers returned for the wrap-up session, but both chambers were able to pass a bill expanding the pension system for the state's police officers and firefighters.Members of the Kansas Police and Firemen's Retirement System (a division of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System) currently may retire with a maximum of 80 percent of their average ending salary if they have 32 years of service. House Bill 2213 would allow them to retire with 90 percent if they work an extra four years.Rep. Steven Johnson, chairman of the House pensions committee, said not a lot of firefighters and police officers fall into that category, but some would take advantage."We have a handful of people who genuinely want to work longer," said Johnson, R-Assaria. "If you want to work longer, it's a win for you, and I think it's a win for the state."Johnson said actuaries had determined the expansion is "cost-neutral" to the pension system — meaning the extra four years members would work and pay into the system rather than draw a pension are projected to offset the extra pension benefit. Also, all members in the system will see their contribution rise from 7 percent to 7.15 percent to help finance the change.Meanwhile, cities and counties may get to keep some veteran first-responders on the job longer.“In our business, in firefighting, there’s nothing like that practical experience," said Jerry Marlatt, a lobbyist from the Kansas State Council of Firefighters. "There’s a lot of knowledge there in some of those senior people.”Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, D-Kansas City, said that was a key consideration in her support of the bill.
"In Wyandotte County we have a lot of people in that particular age category, and what we're always worried about is losing that whole group all at once," Wolfe Moore said. "Hopefully this will encourage them to leave work more slowly."Marlatt said police officers and firefighters have to go through regular testing that should assuage concerns about them struggling to stay on the job past their physical peaks. After 30 years of service, many are in administrative positions, he said, rather than "riding on a truck."Marlatt retired in 2001 and said he hasn’t gotten a cost-of-living increase in his pension since then. He said HB 2213 would provide a benefit-boosting option for firefighters who are anticipating their pensions not keeping up with inflation.“I think about everything I buy went up since then,” Marlatt said. "But that's just my personal experience."The bill passed the Senate 37-0 last week and the House 104-0 this week and is available for Gov. Sam Brownback to sign into law.Marlatt credited Johnson's leadership with shepherding it through the House at a contentious time in the session.“I don’t think he could have run that committee any better," Marlatt said. "It’s kind of refreshing to go in there and it’s not a partisan committee. When issues come up, it seems like it’s run on the merit of the issues. I think he’s done a fantastic job. A lot of times a good leader, people follow in that leaders’ footsteps and there’s a lot of good people in that committee.”
House, Senate cut state aid to gun-control lobbyBill sent to governor bolsters 2nd Amendment or cripples 1st AmendmentPosted: May 21, 2013 - 3:53pm
By Tim Carpenter
The House sent legislation to Gov. Sam Brownback Tuesday prohibiting the expenditure of state-appropriated tax dollars to finance publicity or propaganda arguing for the broadening or weakening of gun control.Hard-driving Republican advocates of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution right to bear arms pushed for passage of the bill, while bipartisan critics in the House denounced the measure as an assault on the First Amendment right to free expression.The bill exempts state legislators and executive branch members from the prohibition on joining in policy debate on gun control, but the legislation would prohibit lobbying on the subject by local units of government that accepted state funding.Rep. Lance Kinzer, an Olathe Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he sponsored the bill because state government shouldn't be in the business of financing advocacy on gun-control legislation or regulation.
"It's one thing to say that the First Amendment protects your right to say or distribute any kind of information you like to distribute," he said. "It's another thing to say the First Amendment requires the government to buy you a printing press, which clearly it does not.”The House advanced Senate Bill 45 on a vote of 83-28, which followed the Senate's 31-6 vote last week in support of the bill.The governor hasn't announced whether he would sign it, but he views himself as a gun-rights advocate.Rep. Nile Dillmore, a Wichita Democrat opposed to the bill, said he was concerned the measure didn't contain a definition of "gun control.""You have before you a political document disguised as statute," Dillmore said. "You can go home and wave this around and say, 'Look what I did. I protected your Second Amendment rights by making sure that government cannot possibly use your state tax dollars to influence gun control.' We're talking about guns here, what's next?"He said religion, race or gender could be the next step after enactment of the "very undemocratic and foolish piece of legislation."Originally, a version of the bill sought by the National Rifle Association was broadly written to block use of state tax dollars to lobby or formulate advertising in regards to "any legal product." The GOP-controlled Senate reduced the focus to gun control.Rep. Vern Swanson, R-Clay Center, said he was concerned the legislation waded into a "really gray area" because all cities, counties and school districts received state-appropriated funds in some form."I believe we're entering into an ethics problem here," he said.Another House Republican, Dighton Rep. Don Hineman, expressed disappointment an elected Legislature was maneuvering to silence other public officials who might be interested in representing their constituents on the gun-control issue."Politics is the marketplace of ideas," Hineman said. "That's what we do in this building. This bill is not about Second Amendment rights. It's about First Amendment rights and placing impediments to the use of those rights."However, Rep. Allan Rothlisberg, R-Grandview Plaza, said the bill's critics were misguided. Recipients of state funding can engage in private fundraising to finance lobbying on gun control, he said."Listening to the hyperbole that goes on here has been amazing," he said. "This bill doesn't restrict anybody's right to free speech. Not in any way, shape or form. All it says is you cannot use state tax money to hire lobbyists to come out with your positions if you want to change something on gun control." The bill didn't contain an enforcement mechanism that included a penalty for violation of the law.
House leader pushes material disputing climate changeSpeaker pro tem initially denies involvement with Heartland InstitutePosted: May 20, 2013 - 2:12pm
By Andy Marso
A book that seeks to refute climate change has been mailed to the homes of House members in recent weeks, along with a letter promoting the materials signed by House Speaker Pro Tem Peggy Mast, R-Emporia.The book, "The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism," is written by Steve Goreham and features a cover illustration of three polar bears riding in a sports car while an apparently-malfunctioning wind turbine spews smoke in the background.The material was mailed to legislators by the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based think tank which caused a furor last year by buying billboards featuring "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski next to the words "I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?"The ad campaign was reportedly to feature similar billboards with the visages of Osama bin Laden, Charles Manson and Fidel Castro but Heartland pulled the plug as their corporate sponsors jumped ship.The books sent to legislators come packaged with a DVD called "Unstoppable Solar Cycles: The Real Story of Greenland" as well as the letter from Mast, in which she calls Goreham's work an "excellent new book on the topic" of climate change."Goreham's book is a colorful, often amusing yet rigorously science-based look at our obsession with global warming," Mast's letter says in language lifted almost word-for-word from a Publisher's Weekly review and the Amazon.com description of Goreham's book. "Goreham uses charts, graphs and references to hundreds of scientific papers to support his arguments. He shows that many of our fears regarding icecap melting, extreme weather, polar bear extinction and many predictions are unfounded."Some legislators who received the book had a different take on its usefulness in the climate science debate.Rep. John Wilson, D-Lawrence, noted that Goreham is a business executive and former engineer, not a climate scientist.Wilson said he was also put off by a "pretty significant lack of citations in the book itself.” The book's copyright page explains that the index and footnote text were placed online "to conserve space in this special edition."“We need to look at the source of where this book is coming from and who’s funding it,” Wilson said.The Christian Science Monitor reported last year that leaked documents revealed billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch — Wichita oil and natural gas magnates who own Koch Industries — are among Heartland's donors.
Rep. Don Hill, R-Emporia, noting that the letter that came packaged with the book was typed on Mast's official stationary, said he wanted to know who funded the mailings.When shown the letter last week, Mast initially said she didn't remember composing it. She showed it to an aide standing nearby, who also seemed stumped."It has my signature, but I don't recall it," Mast said. "I got it at my home too and I opened it and I never paid any attention to it."Heartland Institute spokesman Jim Lakely, contacted last week, promised to look into the matter.Mast said Monday that her office had found the original signed letter and affirmed her support for the institute."I do agree with the policy, I just didn't take the time to read the letter that day," Mast said. "I do agree that sound science comes from the Heartland Institute."Mast said she hasn't had time to read the book.Lakely said Heartland Institute financed the mailings.The veracity of human-caused climate change has become a subject of debate in the Legislature this year amid talks about the state's renewable energy standards.Rep. Dennis Hedke, R-Wichita, the chairman of the House Energy and Environment Committee and a climate change skeptic, brought four climate scientists to his committee in February, two of whom testified that their research doesn’t support any link between human activity and global climate change.One who testified that such a link does exist, Johannes Feddema of The University of Kansas, said he feared the number of skeptics invited to speak could mislead lawmakers about how much dissent there is on a scientific topic on which "98 percent" of researchers agree.Hedke, a contract geophysicist who works for oil and natural gas companies, also had private discussions with a Koch Industries lobbyist as his committee vetted a bill to roll back the state's renewable energy standards.The bill ultimately stalled.
Furloughs to hit more than 6,000 military workers in KansasInstructors, logistics employees among those affected by cutsPosted: May 20, 2013 - 1:07pm
By John Milburn
The Associated Press
Kansas military officials are juggling schedules and changing plans to accommodate furloughs of more than 6,000 civilian employees because of federal budget cuts.
The staff to be idled starting this summer ranges from operations and logistics employees with the Kansas National Guard to instructors at the Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.Scott Gibson, spokesman for Fort Leavenworth’s Combined Arms Center, said the furloughs will affect about 2,600 employees on the post. It is likely to alter some course schedules as the staff juggles workloads, he said.“We will rely on our active duty instructors where possible,” Gibson said. “Leadership in those organizations will work diligently to ensure the impact to students is as minimal as possible.”Furloughs are necessary because of automatic federal spending cuts that took effect in March, which forced the Department of Defense to adjust staffing and operations. The cuts are in addition to already planned reductions that would cut about 80,000 soldiers by 2017.Employees that are paid strictly from funds appropriated by Congress are being furloughed while those from other sources are exempt. For example, the furloughs do not apply to active duty soldiers or traditional members of the National Guard who report for drills each month.The impact in Kansas also will be felt at Fort Riley, home to the Army’s 1st Infantry Division and nearly 18,000 soldiers and their families.Col. William Clark said furloughs at Fort Riley will start on July 19 and effect about 2,400 employees, or roughly one-third of the civilian workforce.“We saw this action coming and have spent a lot of time planning for this requirement,” Clark said. “There are a variety of different commands on Fort Riley, and we’ve worked together to form an integrated plan to accomplish this in a holistic manner.”Clark said that the reductions will be managed so as to limit the impact on health and safety, but other functions such as getting a new identification card may take longer. Ceremonies and special events also won’t be scheduled on Fridays.The furloughs will impact 54 percent of the full-time employees of the Kansas National Guard, including some 1,100 technician positions. Those individuals wear the uniform like other Guard members but are paid from federally appropriated funds which fall under the furlough requirements, said Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli, adjutant general for Kansas.“We cannot cut those kinds of resources without having a significant impact on our services and capabilities,” Tafanelli said. “This is going to have a big impact on our operational readiness.”He said “a good portion” of those being furloughed were in the maintenance field, including those who work on the flight line of the Kansas Air National Guard’s 190th Air Refueling Wing at Forbes Field.“It may not be visibly noticeable to the public at large because as you degrade readiness, it’s not necessarily something that you see in a day-to-day change,” Tafanelli said. “But over time those impacts will affect our operational readiness for our equipment fleet, and the skills and proficiencies that our soldiers and airmen have to maintain will be degraded.”
The furloughs are in addition to the spending adjustments of between 9 percent and 15 percent that Tafanelli said the National Guard must make before Sept. 30.
From the Wichita Eagle
Senate OKs plan keeping sales tax at same level but cutting tax on food
By BRENT D. WISTROM Eagle Topeka bureau Published Thursday, May 23, 2013, at 10:35 a.m. Updated Saturday, May 25, 2013, at 7:14 a.m.
TOPEKA — Groceries would be taxed at a lower rate, but the elevated sales tax rate approved in the wake of the recession would continue indefinitely under a plan approved by the Senate in the waning hours of the legislative session Thursday.
The plan, which sought to break a political logjam after weeks of disagreements between the Republican-dominate House and Senate over the sales tax rate, won approval on a 25-14 vote.
It would lower income tax rates. It would bring in hundreds of millions of dollars to stabilize the state budget in the wake of big income tax cuts last year. It would do that by keeping the sales tax rate and by phasing out deductions that return tax money to Kansans for a variety of activities, such as buying a home.
Lowering income taxes will create more jobs than lowering property or sales tax, said Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita.
“We’re in a stagnant economy,” she said. “This is the best policy we can enact now to counter everything at the federal level.”
In a prepared statement, Gov. Sam Brownback said the Senate’s plan will increase private sector jobs and personal income for Kansas families and businesses, and he said it lowers the tax burden on all Kansans.
But it remained unclear whether the new proposal could pass the House, which sought to let .06 percent of the state sales tax expire as scheduled in July.
The House could vote on the plan as early as Friday morning, sending it to Brownback, or reset the entire debate and push the Legislature deeper into overtime. It surpassed 90 days on Thursday.
“I think it’s a very viable plan for the House,” said Wichita Republican Rep. Gene Suellentrop.
But House Republican leaders have long resisted any sales tax rate beyond 6 percent.
The Senate’s plan would continue indefinitely the increased sales tax rate of 6.3 percent that lawmakers approved in 2010 to protect state services during the recession. The proposal would lower the rate on groceries to 4.95 percent starting in 2014.
Several lawmakers opposed the plan, in part because they promised to let the sales tax increase expire.
“We made a promise, we should keep that promise,” said Wichita Democratic Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau.
Senators voted separately and unanimously to approve the lower rate on groceries.
The overall plan would phase out all tax deductions, except for those on charitable contributions, by 2018. It would lower income tax rates from the current 3 percent and 4.9 percent to 2.8 percent and 3.5 percent by 2018.
Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, said the new rates would give Kansas some of the lowest income tax rates in the region.
Democrats attempt to protect the mortgage interest and real estate property tax deductions, but those attempts were shot down.
The Senate’s plan also sets the standard deduction at $5,000 for heads of household and $6,500 for married couples filing jointly. That would reverse a change approved last year to increase the deduction to $9,000 for both.
Projections show the proposal leaves the state with money in its savings account through 2018, although it erodes that amount from $502 million to about $118 million – or 1.8 percent of how much the state spends.
The proposal brings in about $878 million in additional revenue, which is intended to stabilize the budget after massive tax cuts approved last year that didn’t include any balancing factors.
“Make no mistake about it, this is a tax increase,” said Baldwin City Democratic Sen. Tom Holland.
He said it shifts the burden to low- and middle-class Kansans and questioned why the state wouldn’t just reinstate the food sales tax rebate that lawmakers eliminated as part of the big tax cuts last year.
Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker, said the rebate makes families wait to get their sales tax back until they file their taxes instead of just paying less day-to-day.
Johnson County Sen. Jeff Melcher said a flat 6.125 percent sales tax would generate the same amount of revenue, and he suggested just lowering the rate on food is “social engineering” in the tax code.
He said tax rates are meant to change behavior and lowering the sales tax on food encourages the purchase of food and eating more, which could exacerbate the state’s obesity problem. He also said the state has programs for the poor to get food.
“It seems to me it provides a complexity in the tax code that the retailers will have to deal with,” he said, noting potential difficulty coding products as food or not food.
Andover Republican Sen. Ty Masterson said the state has all kinds of “social engineering” in its tax code, including tax deductions for charitable contributions and taxes on alcohol and tobacco. He said lowering taxes on food gives people more for their money.
“My goal is to lower the tax burden overall on my constituents,” he said. “This does that.”
The Senate also considered the 6 percent sales tax rate woven into a larger compromise the House proposed. It was easily shot down.
“I just think this is poking the House in the eye,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka.
About a month ago, the House unanimously rejected a previous Senate plan that kept the sales tax at 6.3 percent.
Last year, Brownback made income tax cuts the cornerstone of his agenda. But the Senate, controlled by a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats, resisted the idea and stripped
Brownback’s proposal revenue balancers, like continuing the 6.3 percent sales tax and eliminating most tax deductions.
Brownback signed the bill anyway, triggering a steep dropoff in state revenues that fund core services.
The new tax code dropped income tax rates from the previous 6.45 percent and 6.25 percent top brackets to 4.9 percent and the lower bracket from 3.5 percent to 3 percent.
This year, Brownback sought to essentially revive many of the ideas in last year’s proposal while promising additional income tax rate reduction after conservative Republicans ousted moderates during primary elections.
As part of their debate, Senators voted 19-18 to reinstate the disabled access credit that refunds taxes paid as part of projects to make homes and businesses more accessible to people who have disabilities.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society sought the reinstatement, and many lawmakers said they didn’t realize they had eliminated the credit as part of last year’s complex tax-cutting bill.
But Wagle and Bruce said that would open the door to more changes to the bill and said they’re trying to get rid of tax credits, including the $34,000 worth of rebates to help make buildings more accessible.
Melcher again labeled it “social engineering” that complicates the tax code.
The credit is still available to corporations, just not individuals.
“It’s not fair to allow this credit for corporations, but not individuals,” said Topeka Republican Sen. Vicki Schmidt.
She noted the credit costs the state about as much per year as it costs taxpayers for the Legislature to meet for one day, including Friday, which is the first day of overtime for lawmakers.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/23/2815076/kansas-house-senate-struggle-over.html#storylink=cpy
House, Senate review sales tax proposals By BRENT D. WISTROM Eagle Topeka bureau Published Wednesday, May 22, 2013, at 10:14 a.m. Updated Thursday, May 23, 2013, at 6:48 a.m.
TOPEKA — Sales tax on food would drop to pre-recession levels under the Senate GOP’s latest proposal to lower income tax rates.
But the new plan, presented Wednesday during a series of negotiations, would tax all other goods at just under the 6.3 percent level lawmakers approved in 2010 to stave off drastic cuts to state services as the recession sapped state cash flows. The Senate’s plan would drop that rate to 6.25 percent.
Lawmakers failed, however, to find an agreeable plan as the 89th day of the 90-day legislative session drew to a close and proposed follow-up tax negotiations fizzled out. Republican leaders planned to resume negotiations Thursday morning.
It’s unclear whether the lower sales tax on food will gain enough support. The proposed food sales tax rate, which is the same as Kansans paid before 2010, would apply only to unprepared food – not meals served at restaurants.
But the return to 5.7 percent sales tax on food would still cause many poor Kansans to pay more than they used to because last year’s tax cut plan repealed the food sales tax rebate that elderly and disabled Kansans used to be able to claim if they made less than $36,700 a year.
“The people who would have realized the rebate are actually going to end up paying more … as a result of this,” said Rep. Julie Menghini, D-Pittsburg, who is the House Democrats’ leader in current tax negotiations.
Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, said the lower food sales tax rate may entice some people who live near the Missouri border to shop at Kansas grocery stores.
“They might decide it’s not worth burning some $4 gasoline to go over there and save a few bucks on groceries,” he said. “They might stay home.”
While lawmakers said the shift could win over some votes, it may also peel some away because it eliminates popular tax deductions over the course of five years, trimming their value by 25 percent next year and increasing to 100 percent by 2018.
The proposal is just the latest attempt by Republicans, who easily outnumber Democrats in the Legislature, to bring in new revenue to prevent huge budget problems caused by the big income tax cuts Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law last year. The new revenue would come from continuing some of the sales tax increase that was slated to expire in July and by getting rid of deductions, except for the charitable contributions deduction.
The Senate’s new plan cuts the lower tax rate from the current 3 percent to 2.9 percent next year and continues to decrease it to 2.5 percent by 2018. The upper rate, paid on income beyond $30,000, would fall from the existing 4.9 percent to 4.8 percent next year and continue to fall to 3.5 percent by 2018.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/22/2813467/house-senate-review-sales-tax.html#storylink=cpy
Senate GOP leaders propose compromise tax plan By Brent D. Wistrom Eagle Topeka Bureau Published Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at 3:55 p.m. Updated Thursday, May 23, 2013, at 6:48 a.m.
TOPEKA — In the latest twist on tax talks, Senate Republicans pitched a compromise plan Tuesday to drop the state’s temporarily elevated sales tax from 6.3 percent to 6.25 percent while dropping income tax rates and phasing out almost all tax deductions.
St. Marys Republican Rep. Richard Carlson said he plans to discuss the proposal with other House Republican leaders and return to the negotiating table later Tuesday to debate it further.
The mostly symbolic reduction to the sales tax rate follows months of debate over whether to extend the rate at 6.3 percent instead of letting it drop as scheduled to 5.7 percent in July.
“It’s less than it was,” Wichita Republican Sen. Les Donovan said.
The Senate has long pushed for and voted to extend the sales tax rate to bring in more revenue to channel toward income tax reductions.
The Senate Republican offer would phase all out tax deductions, except for charitable donations, by 2018, starting with a 25 percent reduction next year. Meanwhile, the top income tax rate that workers pay on the money they earn beyond $30,000 would drop to 4.8 percent and continue falling to 3.5 percent by 2018. The lower-income rate would decline from 2.9 percent to 2.8 percent over the same time.
The proposal reverses course on the increase of standard deductions approved as part of last year’s massive income tax cuts. It would set the standard deduction at $5,000 for head of households and $6,500 for married couples that file jointly.
Projections show the plan would leave the state with some money in its savings account for several years before that account drops to just $41 million — or .6 percent of expenditures — by 2018.
The Senate’s proposal is the latest attempt to fix the big budget problems caused by the hastily approved income tax cuts Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law last year.
Baldwin City Democratic Sen. Tom Holland said the proposal doesn’t appear to present a major change, although he noted that the phasing out of deductions could hit some taxpayers.
“Folks that itemize would be hurting more under this plan,” he said.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/21/2812372/senate-gop-leaders-propose-compromise.html#storylink=cpy
GOP legislators wide-ranging in views as tax talks continue
By BRENT D. WISTROM Eagle Topeka bureau Published Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at 1:19 p.m. Updated Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at 1:46 p.m.
TOPEKA — Republicans inched closer to an agreement Tuesday on how to bring in more taxpayer money while also cutting income taxes.
But leaders of the dominant political party still seemed scattered on how to explain plans that extend some of the elevated sales tax rate set to expire in July and phase out almost all tax deductions in order to lower income tax rates.
The reality of that complicated discussion set in hard on the 88th day of the 90-day legislative session. That was perhaps best illustrated by wide-ranging opinions expressed by freshman Republicans, who convened on the top floor of the Capitol to dig deep into tax proposals.
There, lawmakers sought to view plans being considered in the context of the massive income tax reductions signed into law by Gov. Sam Brownback last year. That plan veered far off the course Brownback had hoped for, locking in income tax cuts for businesses and individuals without bringing in much new revenue to offset those cuts.
Now Brownback is asking lawmakers, including a record number of freshmen who didn’t get to vote for last year’s big cuts, to balance those cuts and pay for more income tax reductions by drawing in more revenue.
“Anybody who came here and had the illusion that we weren’t going to have to make these hard decisions, they were incorrect,” said Rep. Mark Hutton, R-Wichita. “We have bent the curve of the debate from how much are we growing government to how much are we cutting government. That’s a phenomenal thing.”
Hutton presented his own plan that sought to ease the burden on the poor caused by the elevated sales tax while also continuing to cut rates.
That proposal would drop sales tax on food from the current 6.3 percent to 4.95 percent, below the 5.7 percent rate Kansans paid prior to the temporary increase approved in the wake of the recession in 2010. It lets the sales tax on other taxable goods drop just a bit to 6.25 percent.
That idea strays slightly from plans being debated at the highest levels of Republican leadership.
Senate Republicans advanced a plan that would drop the state’s sales tax from 6.3 percent to 6.25 percent while dropping income tax rates and phasing out almost all tax deductions.
Rep. Richard Carlson, R-St. Marys, said he plans to discuss the proposal with other House Republican leaders and return to the negotiating table Wednesday.
The mostly symbolic reduction to the sales tax rate follows months of debate over whether to extend the rate at 6.3 percent instead of letting it drop as scheduled to 5.7 percent in July. And it’s relatively far off from the 6 percent sales tax proposal House Republicans offered a week ago.
“It’s less than it was,” Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, said.
The Senate Republicans’ offer would phase all out tax deductions, except for charitable donations, by 2018, starting with a 25 percent reduction next year. Meanwhile, the top income tax rate that workers pay on the money they earn beyond $30,000 would drop to 4.8 percent and continue falling to 3.5 percent by 2018. The lower-income rate would decline from 2.9 percent to 2.5 percent over the same time.
The proposal reverses course on the increase of standard deductions approved as part of last year’s massive income tax cuts.
It would set the standard deduction at $5,000 for heads of household and $6,500 for married couples who file jointly.
Projections show the plan would leave the state with some money in its savings account for several years before that account drops to just $41 million – or 0.6 percent of expenditures – by 2018.
Brownback said he met with legislative leaders Tuesday morning, but he declined to discuss details of those conversations.
“Everybody has to compromise a little bit to get there,” he said.
Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, who ran against Brownback for governor in 2010, said that like other lawmakers, he has largely been kept out of private discussions among top Republican leaders in which the tax proposals evolved.
He said he thinks the House should just approve the Senate’s budget and go home without extending the sales tax or other tax policy to help fill in the budget problems the state will face if it doesn’t bring in new revenue.
“Let the people decide what they’d like tax policy to do,” he said. “This negotiating of tax policy behind closed doors, this is doing the Koch brothers’ bidding. This isn’t doing the people’s bidding.”
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/21/2812099/wichita-lawmaker-proposes-trimming.html#storylink=cpy
Wagle: Extending sales tax an “unprecedented opportunity’
By BRENT D. WISTROM Eagle Topeka bureau Published Monday, May 20, 2013, at 10:55 a.m. Updated Monday, May 20, 2013, at 11:11 a.m.
TOPEKA — The standoff between the Republican-controlled House and Senate continued Monday as lawmakers sought a way to follow up last year’s big income-tax cuts with more cuts while also finding new revenue to sustain essential state services.
Lawmakers accomplished almost nothing as Republican leaders reinforced their positions and Gov. Sam Brownback promoted his vision for Kansas at a think tank meeting in Chicago.
Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, called the six-tenths of a cent sales tax due to expire in July an “unprecedented opportunity” in a letter distributed to Kansas House Republican lawmakers.
Wagle, who is pushing to extend the sales tax and cut income taxes more, suggested that many local governments are planning to increase their local sales tax when the state sales tax drops from 6.3 percent to 5.7 percent.
“If we allow the sales tax to sunset, you will receive no credit for lowering it during the next election as communities quickly replace it in order to spend,” she wrote. “If we keep the full sales tax in order to lower income tax, the credit will rightfully belong to you.”
Pointing to a Fox Business channel program by John Stossel about job growth in states with no income tax, Wagle reasserted her position that lowering the income tax is more important than letting the sales tax expire.
“One may also argue sales tax places an undue burden on the poor, and thus, we should lower those as well – but again, lowering the sales tax doesn’t grow jobs,” she wrote.
Sales tax tends to put more burden on poor people because they spend a larger portion of their income on taxable goods, such as food and clothing.
Wagle’s letter comes amid bitter exchanges between House and Senate Republican leaders over how deeply to cut the state’s budget and how much to reduce taxes.
“To me the statement misses the point,” said Rep. Richard Carlson, a Republican from St. Marys who leads tax discussions for the House GOP. “The point is to lower the overall tax burden on the people of Kansas. And the only way you can do that in the long run is to reduce expenditures. Their (Senate) tax plan does minimal reductions of expenditures.”
The Senate and the governor want to extend the 6.3 percent sales tax and cut income taxes more.
House Republicans have offered a compromise to cut the sales tax to 6 percent — half of the scheduled decrease. That is paired with the House’s deeper budget cuts, including a 4 percent cut to higher education.
House Speaker Ray Merrick vented frustration Monday about the Senate’s lack of response to the compromise proposal and called for the Senate to respond or produce a counter offer.
He said he wants a proposal in writing and has gotten only a text message.
"I don’t think that’s too much to ask," he said. "And, in fact, this is not good governance.
"We don’t need to be here, but we are," he said.
Meanwhile, Brownback, who is pushing for the sales tax extension, traveled to Chicago to tell the Illinois Policy Institute about the tax cuts he approved last year and his vision for the state going forward.
Democratic leaders attacked him for promoting the cuts while lawmakers in Kansas are at loggerheads over how to make them work.
Wichita Democratic Rep. Jim Ward said Brownback needs the extended sales tax to cut income taxes and provide adequate funding for core services, such as education, during an upcoming election year. He said Brownback and his allies in the Senate will likely hold out for the extended sales tax.
"I believe that we’re not leaving this building until they (House lawmakers) capitulate to the Senate," he said.
Monday was the 87th day of the scheduled 90-day legislative session.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/20/2810449/kansas-lawmakers-start-monday.html#storylink=cpy
Will lawmakers stick by no-tax pledge?
A pledge by some state lawmakers to never raise taxes is a factor in finalizing
the state budget, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. Fifteen House members (half of whom are from
the Wichita area) signed a no-tax pledge administered by Americans for Prosperity, and AFP considers
the proposed extension of the statewide sales tax to be a tax increase. However, eight state senators who
signed the AFP pledge voted for the sales-tax extension, including Senate President Susan Wagle, R-
Wichita.
Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2013/05/will-lawmakers-stick-by-no-tax-pledge/#storylink=cpy
Eagle editorial: Don’t target NCAT Published Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at 12 a.m.
As revenues ebb under the income-tax cuts, state leaders are looking at everything as a potential place to cut spending. But why look at the National Center for Aviation Training, which is the sort of business-driven educational facility the state’s economy will need to grow and Wichita will need to remain a planemaking powerhouse?
When Gov. Sam Brownback held his first economic summit two years ago, he chose to do so at NCAT, returning last year to sign his bill enabling high school students to take technical courses at Kansas tech schools and community colleges.
It’s especially mystifying why Wichita-area legislators would take the lead in targeting NCAT for a $2 million cut next fiscal year, given that the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce’s legislative agenda advocates continued funding for NCAT “as part of ongoing workforce development critical to the aviation manufacturing cluster.” Jason Watkins, the chamber’s director of government relations, confirmed Monday the chamber does not support cutting NCAT.
Wichita has enough trouble persuading lawmakers elsewhere in the state to support its interests. Wichita-area lawmakers should not be leading a fight at the Statehouse against one of the city’s prime economic development initiatives.
Yet Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ty Masterson, R-Andover, introduced the cut and Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, supports it. Masterson contends that NCAT can handle a cut because it has money left over – an argument disputed by NCAT officials, who say the carried-over funds are committed for machinery purchases.
Conservative Republicans like Masterson and Wagle can be critical of schools and others that strategically spend down tax dollars as a budget year ends. Why dock NCAT now for banking money for future needs?
It’s similarly bizarre that Masterson is finding fault with the Wichita Area Technical College, which acts as the management company for the Sedgwick County-owned NCAT. According to The Eagle’s Brent Wistrom, Masterson wants to see a broad reorganization of NCAT that would shift control of operations to Wichita State University. Why?
Under president Tony Kinkel, WATC has a fast-growing enrollment and fine reputation nationally and locally, including among members of the Sedgwick County Commission.
As Sedgwick County Manager William Buchanan said Monday: “The WATC board is comprised of our industrial and business leaders. I believe the board has the right people to provide vision, leadership and oversight for technical training. We support the board’s request for $5 million for equipment.”
Watkins said “the chamber is supportive and appreciative of the great job WATC has done with NCAT.”
State lawmakers have tough fiscal choices to make before the 2013 session finally ends. But cutting NCAT’s funding would not serve the state’s economic rebound, and the proposed reorganization of NCAT’s management sounds like a solution to a nonexistent problem.
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/21/2810955/eagle-editorial-dont-target-ncat.html#storylink=cpy
Wagle: Extending sales tax an “unprecedented opportunity’
By BRENT D. WISTROM Eagle Topeka bureau Published Monday, May 20, 2013, at 10:55 a.m. Updated Monday, May 20, 2013, at 11:11 a.m.
TOPEKA — The standoff between the Republican-controlled House and Senate continued Monday as lawmakers sought a way to follow up last year’s big income-tax cuts with more cuts while also finding new revenue to sustain essential state services.
Lawmakers accomplished almost nothing as Republican leaders reinforced their positions and Gov. Sam Brownback promoted his vision for Kansas at a think tank meeting in Chicago.
Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, called the six-tenths of a cent sales tax due to expire in July an “unprecedented opportunity” in a letter distributed to Kansas House Republican lawmakers.
Wagle, who is pushing to extend the sales tax and cut income taxes more, suggested that many local governments are planning to increase their local sales tax when the state sales tax drops from 6.3 percent to 5.7 percent.
“If we allow the sales tax to sunset, you will receive no credit for lowering it during the next election as communities quickly replace it in order to spend,” she wrote. “If we keep the full sales tax in order to lower income tax, the credit will rightfully belong to you.”
Pointing to a Fox Business channel program by John Stossel about job growth in states with no income tax, Wagle reasserted her position that lowering the income tax is more important than letting the sales tax expire.
“One may also argue sales tax places an undue burden on the poor, and thus, we should lower those as well – but again, lowering the sales tax doesn’t grow jobs,” she wrote.
Sales tax tends to put more burden on poor people because they spend a larger portion of their income on taxable goods, such as food and clothing.
Wagle’s letter comes amid bitter exchanges between House and Senate Republican leaders over how deeply to cut the state’s budget and how much to reduce taxes.
“To me the statement misses the point,” said Rep. Richard Carlson, a Republican from St. Marys who leads tax discussions for the House GOP. “The point is to lower the overall tax burden on the people of Kansas. And the only way you can do that in the long run is to reduce expenditures. Their (Senate) tax plan does minimal reductions of expenditures.”
The Senate and the governor want to extend the 6.3 percent sales tax and cut income taxes more.
House Republicans have offered a compromise to cut the sales tax to 6 percent — half of the scheduled decrease. That is paired with the House’s deeper budget cuts, including a 4 percent cut to higher education.
House Speaker Ray Merrick vented frustration Monday about the Senate’s lack of response to the compromise proposal and called for the Senate to respond or produce a counter offer.
He said he wants a proposal in writing and has gotten only a text message.
"I don’t think that’s too much to ask," he said. "And, in fact, this is not good governance.
"We don’t need to be here, but we are," he said.
Meanwhile, Brownback, who is pushing for the sales tax extension, traveled to Chicago to tell the Illinois Policy Institute about the tax cuts he approved last year and his vision for the state going forward.
Democratic leaders attacked him for promoting the cuts while lawmakers in Kansas are at loggerheads over how to make them work.
Wichita Democratic Rep. Jim Ward said Brownback needs the extended sales tax to cut income taxes and provide adequate funding for core services, such as education, during an upcoming election year. He said Brownback and his allies in the Senate will likely hold out for the extended sales tax.
"I believe that we’re not leaving this building until they (House lawmakers) capitulate to the Senate," he said.
Monday was the 87th day of the scheduled 90-day legislative session.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/20/2810449/kansas-lawmakers-start-monday.html#storylink=cpy
Ron Pasmore: Face the facts on KanCare By Ron Pasmore Published Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at 12 a.m.
I respectfully disagree with state Rep. David Crum’s support for the Brownback administration’s proposal to hand off community developmental disability services to national health insurance companies (May 17 Opinion). The nonmedical services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities need to be carved out of KanCare, and I/DD parents and advocates are sincerely appreciative that more and more legislators agree with us.
KanCare was devised with little knowledge of Kansas disability services. That was made clear by the decision to assign these services to the insurance industry – an industry that has no experience in the disability service field and, worse, a terrible track record of working with people with disabilities.
Families with autism certainly understand. They saw the insurance industry block action again this year on a law requiring autism insurance coverage. Historically, families with complex disability-related medical challenges have experienced deep frustration and denials of benefits, and have exhausted their energy and often their money jumping through time-consuming administrative hoops of health insurers.
Simply stated, the insurance industry has not demonstrated any level of competence nor commitment to the needs of people with disabilities that would qualify it to control any aspect of the disability service network.
Crum, an Augusta Republican, pointed to information from a University of Kansas School of Medicine study as a justification for KanCare. But he did not mention that the study was not about managed care, nor did he include that the data was incomplete for more than half the people included in the study. Yet he cited it as proof, somehow, that insurance companies should be placed in charge of long-term support services for Kansans with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
I agree with Crum that Kansas has had an excellent track record for community disability services. This is because all the program development has been a shared responsibility between the state’s leaders and community leaders – including families, local governments and professionals.
The KanCare climate is much different. Community leaders are now being criticized for raising the sincere and legitimate concerns of families and people served. This is a bad climate for the continuation of the “excellence” of the current system.
We will continue to urge legislators to look at facts, not fiction, and we will continue to urge the Brownback administration to exclude nonmedical disability services from the KanCare experiment.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/21/2810961/ron-pasmore-face-the-facts-on.html#storylink=cpy
Don’t block Common Core By John Heim, Karen Godfrey and Cheryl L. Semmel Published Thursday, May 23, 2013, at 12 a.m.
A proposal to block the Kansas State Board of Education and school districts from spending any state funding to implement the Common Core standards, the Next Generation science standards, or any assessments associated with the two was proposed last week during conference committee negotiations on the state budget. This measure failed to pass either chamber earlier this session and, in fact, was defeated in the House Education Committee on a vote of 11-7.
Because of the critical impact of such an action on the students we serve, our three organizations are urging state lawmakers to oppose any action that would halt or delay implementation of these standards. To this end, we offer the following facts to support implementation of the Common Core standards:
• We support these standards because they establish rigorous academic standards in English language arts and mathematics, and define the knowledge and skills all students should master by the end of each grade to be college- or career-ready upon high school graduation.
• These standards are included in the Kansas College and Career Readiness Standards, and our schools, under the guidance of the state board, have already invested significant resources and time in preparing our members to implement the standards.
• The standards are not a mandate of the federal government. They were created through the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. States that adopted the standards were able to provide input into their development and to add state-specific content.
• The standards are not curriculum; rather they identify where students should be academically at any given time.
• The standards are benchmarked to international standards to ensure our students are competitive both at home and internationally.
• The standards provide increased stability and a more seamless transition for students in military families who move frequently.
• Business leaders – such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Boeing, Bayer Corp., ExxonMobil Corp., Xerox and the National Defense Industrial Association – support the Common Core standards
and stated they believe the standards hold “great promise for creating a more highly skilled workforce that is better equipped to meet the needs of local, state and national economies.”
Again, we strongly urge lawmakers to oppose any efforts to defund or otherwise halt the implementation of the Common Core standards in our state. Join us in ensuring that Kansas students continue to be among the most college- and career-ready, both at home and in the world.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/23/2814241/dont-block-common-core.html#storylink=cpy
Conservatives should champion Common Core
Claims by some conservative state and federal lawmakers that the Common Core
education standards are being imposed by the federal government “do not stand up to close scrutiny,” Sol
Stern and Joel Klein wrote in a Wall Street Journal commentary. “The Common Core standards were not
written by the federal government, but by a committee selected by the National Governors Association
and the Council of Chief State School Officers.” What’s more, they wrote, “all Americans, including
conservatives, should applaud these standards, which celebrate the country’s foundational documents
and enable students to share the heritage of Americans.” Attempts in the Kansas Legislature to block
Common Core couldn’t make it out of the House and Senate education committees this session, but
some GOP lawmakers are trying to tie it to end-of-session budget negotiations. “There is a general
resistance to the federal government imposing a curriculum on our Kansas schools,” said Sen. Ty
Masterson, R-Andover. That would be understandable if it were happening, but it’s not.
Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2013/05/conservatives-should-champion-common-core/#storylink=cpy
Governor needs to usher lawmakers to the exits
Instead of ending in 80 days, as promised by the Legislature’s new conservative GOP
leaders, the legislative session has spun out of control. On the 91st day, which was Friday, the House
unceremoniously rejected the Senate’s tax plan on a 5-109 vote and adjourned until Tuesday. That was
despite a closed-door appeal to House freshmen that morning by Gov. Sam Brownback. Such rancor
among conservatives reflects badly on the leadership of the governor, Senate President Susan Wagle, R-
Wichita, and House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, and the resulting overtime days are wasting tax
dollars. Senate negotiators took a big step Friday afternoon in blessing House negotiators’ preferred 6
percent sales-tax rate, but will the rank and file fall in line? Brownback needs to usher lawmakers to the
exits.
Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2013/05/governor-needs-to-show-lawmakers-the-way-to-the-exits/#storylink=cpy
House leader promotes anti-climate-change book she didn’t read
Kansas House Speaker Pro Tem Peggy Mast, R-Emporia, initially said she didn’t recall
writing the letter on her office stationery that was sent along with an anti-climate-change book to the
homes of Kansas House members. But she later confirmed that she wrote the letter endorsing the book,
which she has not read. Parts of Mast’s endorsement were taken almost word for word from a Publishers
Weekly review of the book, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. The book, “The Mad, Mad, Mad World of
Climatism,” was distributed by the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based think tank funded in part by
Charles and David Koch.
Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2013/05/house-leader-promotes-anti-climate-change-book-she-didnt-read/#storylink=cpy
Koch lawyer says Obama administration has tried to intimidate Koch Industries
By ROY WENZL The Wichita Eagle Published Friday, May 24, 2013, at 8:15 p.m. Updated Sunday, May 26, 2013, at 7:58 p.m.
The chief lawyer for Koch Industries said Friday that government targeting of conservative political groups is nothing new to the Wichita-based company.
Chief legal counsel Mark Holden said the White House, as early as August 2010, was deliberately trying to politically intimidate Koch Industries.
Holden said that although he had no direct evidence that the White House had any involvement in targeting Koch for IRS tax scrutiny, he pointed to what he described as a “disturbing” comment about taxes and Koch Industries made by one of President Obama’s political advisers, Austan Goolsbee, at a White House briefing in August 2010.
Because the IRS is admitting that it deliberately targeted conservative political groups for extra tax scrutiny, it is worth raising questions about whether the events are connected, Holden said.
Holden has publicly criticized the Goolsbee comments before.
“Some of what I do here reminds me sometimes of the movie ‘Groundhog Day,’ where I have to do the same things over and over,” Holden joked.
But Holden said he isn’t joking in bringing up the Goolsbee situation again. He said that when he looks at what Goolsbee said in 2010 and puts it alongside what President Obama was saying about the Kochs in the same month, and puts that alongside the fact that the IRS recently admitted it targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny, he sees, at minimum, a “disturbing” pattern of government intimidation.
The Eagle called the White House for comment about Holden’s comments on Friday. The White House press office asked that the newspaper’s request for a response be outlined in writing, which it was.
By early evening, the White House had not responded.
“I am not suggesting anyone broke the law,” Holden said, and he pointed out that the White House later said that no one had tried to access tax information.
But he said the Obama administration used the Kochs to scare their own supporters into donating more to the campaign. And he said what they did went further than that. He said he and Koch Industries officials believe that “everyone, whether Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal or independent or agnostic,” should be concerned at the pattern of behavior exhibited by the national government in how it handled not only the Kochs but the conservative groups it targeted for extra scrutiny. At minimum, he said, the government used scare tactics to intimidate White House opponents.
Many Americans believe many of the same things the Kochs do about politics and government, Holden said.
“They go after the Kochs, who have resources,” Holden said. “We’re not asking for empathy or sympathy – we’re big boys and we can take it. But you’ve got people who are small business owners, common citizens, who also want their grievances redressed by the government. It sends a message (of intimidation) to them as well.”
The Goolsbee situation, which Holden brought up again on Friday, was first reported in September 2010 by the Weekly Standard.
A few days before, in August, Goolsbee, a senior economic adviser to President Obama, was reported to have said the following:
“So in this country we have partnerships, we have S corps, we have LLCs, we have a series of entities that do not pay corporate income tax. Some of which are really giant firms, you know Koch Industries is a multibillion dollar business. So that creates a narrower base because we’ve literally got something like 50 percent of the business income in the U.S. is going to businesses that don’t pay any corporate income tax. They point out (in the report) you could review the boundary between corporate and non-corporate taxation as a way to broaden the base.”
First of all, Holden said Friday, Koch Industries follows federal law and pays a great deal of money in taxes. Koch Industries earns billions of dollars a year and employs 48,000 people in the U.S. (and another 12,000 people in 60 other countries). “We pay the taxes we are obligated to pay,” he said.
But Holden said one reason he became concerned about what Goolsbee was reported to have said is that by law, tax records are confidential. Goolsbee’s comments raised the thought that Goolsbee or the White House had broken that confidentiality illegally, and reviewed the tax records.
In light of what is now being revealed about the IRS scrutiny of other political opponents of President Obama, Holden said, it makes him wonder whether these events are part of a pattern of behavior by a national government unhappy with criticism.
Goolsbee’s comments did prompt an investigation by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Holden said. Several Republican senators demanded that it be done, and it was done, Holden said.
But the results of that investigation are not known, Holden said.
He used the Freedom of Information Act to ask for the file.
But the federal government refused his request.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/24/2817584/koch-lawyer-obama-administration.html#storylink=cpy
Eagle editorial: Tankers will boost city Published Thursday, May 23, 2013, at 12 a.m.
Wichita got a great, well-timed boost with Wednesday’s news that McConnell Air Force Base will be the main active-duty operating base for the KC-46A tankers, emerging the winner in the 54-base field. The Air Force’s faith in McConnell is well-placed, and the community must do all it can to support the effort.
McConnell also was in the running to become a formal training base for the new tankers, a job won by Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma.
But McConnell got what it wanted most with the Air Force’s decision, meaning it can expect to receive 36 new tankers in 2016, and see the economic benefits of hosting them. That’s the perfect role for McConnell, which is currently the world’s largest tanker base, with 62 KC-135s, and the home of the Air Force’s 22nd Air Refueling Wing and the Air Force Reserves’ 931st Air Refueling Group.
So even though Boeing Wichita won’t be part of the $35 billion contract to build 179 tankers after all, due to Boeing’s decision to leave town by the end of this year, some of those planes will end up calling Wichita home. That’s as it should be, because no U.S. city knows and appreciates air-refueling tankers and their vital mission more than Wichita does.
As Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, said in a statement: “We’re thrilled that McConnell AFB has been recognized as an indispensable part of America’s defenses and excited about the opportunities this creates for the rest of Kansas.”
The Air Force’s landmark decision for Wichita came amid a week of mixed economic news, what with Via Christi Health’s decision to lay off 325 people locally among up to 400 job cuts statewide, the folding of the Wichita Wings soccer franchise (again) and the prediction by Wichita State University researchers that local economic activity will decline slightly over the next six months.
The other welcome development concerns Starwood Hotels and Resorts’ choice to open a call center at Office This in southeast Wichita. The deal, secured with the help of $200,000 forgivable loans approved this week by the city and county and $1.6 million in state incentives, will mean 907 jobs over five years.
As much as the Air Force’s decision means now, in the context of a local economy still struggling to grow, what may matter even more is how it positions and fortifies McConnell for the coming base-closing and budget-slashing fights in Washington, D.C. President Obama’s 2014 budget requested $192 million for infrastructure for the eventual operating base for the tankers. Such investment now is bound for Wichita, which should benefit local contractors and help protect McConnell long term.
Congratulations and thanks to all who fought for and won this exciting new role for McConnell and Wichita.
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/23/2814227/eagle-editorial-tankers-will-boost.html#storylink=cpy
Kobach considering appeal of redistricting ruling Published Thursday, May 2, 2013, at 5:35 p.m. Updated Friday, May 3, 2013, at 7:07 a.m.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday that he's considering an appeal of a federal court order requiring Kansas to cover $389,000 worth of attorneys' fees and expenses for parties in a lawsuit over political redistricting.
The lawsuit stemmed from a bitter dispute in the Legislature last year over how to redraw the state's political boundaries to ensure equal representation. Lawmakers failed to pass any plan for revising congressional, legislative and State Board of Education districts, and the panel of three federal judges hearing the lawsuit redrew the lines themselves.
Kobach was a defendant in the lawsuit because he is the state's chief elections officer, and the litigation sought to prevent him from supervising voting with the old districts in place. He was sued by a Robyn Renee Essex, a Republican precinct committee member from Olathe, but the judges allowed 26 other people, including key figures in the legislative impasse, to join her in participating in the case against Kobach.
The secretary of state, also a Republican, had objected to allowing so many people to intervene and argued that it could lead to the state being forced to cover big legal bills. The three judges ruled
Tuesday that 15 people were entitled to have a least part of their attorneys' fees and expenses covered by the state.
"This is ridiculous, that these attorneys are being rewarded for piling on this this lawsuit," Kobach said during an interview with The Associated Press. "This never should have happened."
Kobach said his office is consulting with Attorney General Derek Schmidt's office about a possible appeal. Schmidt spokesman Don Brown did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.
The secretary of state, a former law professor, said he's researching whether a review of the panel's order would be limited on appeal and whether an appeal would be filed with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver or directly with the U.S. Supreme Court.
The panel was led by Judge Kathryn Vratil, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court in Kansas and included Senior U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum and Chief Judge Mary Beck Briscoe of the 10th Circuit court.
The panel's decision was defended by state House Minority Leader Paul Davis, a Lawrence Democrat, who intervened in the lawsuit with former state Rep. Bill Roy Jr. of Lenexa. The panel said they were entitled to have about $46,000 for attorneys' fees and expenses covered by the state. They had sought an award of more than $101,000.
The dispute over redistricting was especially bitter among majority Republicans in the Legislature, as conservatives and moderates battled over lines that could hurt or help them in last year's elections.
Davis said Democrats had to get involved in the case to protect their interests, noting that both Kobach and Essex are Republicans. Also, Davis, himself an attorney, said the federal judges have wide discretion in settling such issues and predicted there's a "zero percent" chance the ruling will be overturned.
"Kris Kobach has been around the court system, and he should know better," Davis said during an interview.
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/02/2787000/kobach-considering-appeal-of-redistricting.html#storylink=cpy
From the Kansas City Star
Inability to agree on taxes frustrates Kansas Republicans May 25BY BRAD COOPERThe Kansas City Star
TOPEKA — It was supposed to be so easy.
A conservative House. A conservative Senate. A conservative governor.
The Republican-controlled troika was expected to remake Kansas into a Red State model with low taxes, a friendly business climate and a streamlined, efficient government.
That vision for Kansas has been slow to coalesce during this year’s legislative session as the Republican majority struggled to settle on the best route for cutting taxes.
The Legislature adjourned Friday after 91 days without cutting taxes or passing a budget, two of the session’s principle goals. It’s set to reconvene this week after the holiday at an estimated cost of $45,000 a day.
Many lawmakers left Topeka frustrated and angry Friday after the House decisively rejected a plan offered by the Senate to cut taxes on income and sales taxes on food.
“I am dumbfounded,” said Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican. “I don’t know what we’re doing or where we’re going from here.”
A panel of House and Senate negotiators agreed on a plan late Friday that might provide a path to ending the session as early as this week. But passage of their compromise is far from certain.
The long slog this session surprised many lawmakers, especially with the House, the Senate and the governor so seemingly in philosophical alignment.
“I did not think it would be this difficult,” said Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, an Olathe Republican and former House majority leader. “I thought we would have a fairly easy time coming to some sort of agreement.”
The Republican rift in the Legislature is tangled around a controversial sales tax increase approved in 2010 to help the state bridge the recent economic downturn.
That tax is set to lapse July 1, leaving the state with a 5.7 percent sales tax.
However, Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, wants to keep the sales tax at 6.3 percent to fill deep holes left in the budget because of income tax cuts enacted last year and to cut income taxes even more in coming years.
The Republican Senate, controlled by the party’s conservatives, wants to keep the sales tax at 6.3 percent. The House has insisted on 6 percent.
Many of its members either voted against a higher sales tax or got elected to the Statehouse by running against it.
House members would like to see the budget cut even more.
Since May 15, the two chambers have traded tax plans eight times, with each side accusing the other of an unwillingness to bend.
However, the House on Friday persuaded Senate negotiators to agree
to keep the sales tax at 6 percent and, from 2014 through 2018, gradually cut income taxes.
House tax chairman Richard Carlson said he thought that plan could pass his chamber.
But Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce didn’t give it such strong odds. That leaves open the possibility that the stalemate could continue well after Memorial Day.
Interviews with lawmakers reveal that the breakdown at the Legislature goes deeper than just the sales tax.
• Republicans — even the conservatives — aren’t a monolith. Their views differ widely on taxes.
For instance, some want to cut income taxes more quickly than others. Some want to reduce spending more gradually than others.
“We are a large majority, but we have a large degree of differing opinions on everything,” said Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady, a freshman Republican from Palco.
• Many freshman House Republicans — there are 49 in all — still grapple with the complexities of tax policy. While the freshman class gets high marks from senior lawmakers, the newbies still have some learning to do, some lawmakers said.
“Most of them spent half the session trying to find where the bathrooms are and we are asking them to change tax policy for a generation,” Bruce said. “That’s an intimidating task.”
• Changing tax policy that moves the state from an income tax to consumption tax is an enormous task.
“We’re trying to change the trajectory of the state,” said Senate President Susan Wagle. “It is very hard to get agreement on a bill that changes tax policy for the next decade.”
Then there’s Brownback, who Democrats particularly accuse of not being willing to accept anything less than keeping the state sales tax at 6.3 percent.
“He’s asking all these people to clean up his mess,” said House Minority Leader Paul Davis, a Democrat from Lawrence.
“And lot of conservative Republicans are saying, ‘Why should I vote for a huge tax increase and not cut some of the spending I want to see cut to bail out a mess I had no role in creating,’” Davis said.
Brownback spokeswoman Sherriene Jones-Sontag said he will consider any plan that lowers taxes and fosters an environment for creating jobs while protecting core services.
Next year’s House elections, and the role conservative groups like the
Kansas Chamber of Commerce might play, could be a factor stalling compromise, said Chapman Rackaway, a political science professor at Fort Hays State University.
The chamber has opposed renewing the sales tax increase and was a key player in electing conservatives to the Statehouse last year.
As a result, House members may be angst-ridden about facing primary opposition from challengers on the political right, he said.
“These House members are worried about next year,” Rackaway said. “Anything related to taxes there is a great paranoia about.”
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/25/4256803/kansas-gop-v-kansas-gop-on-taxes.html#storylink=cpy
Kansas Senate passes plan to cut sales tax on groceries May 23BY BRAD COOPERThe Kansas City Star
TOPEKA — The Kansas Senate on Thursday set up a showdown with the House over a tax plan that cuts income taxes along with sales taxes on groceries.
The Senate voted 25-14 Thursday evening to pass the tax plan after failing to reach an agreement earlier in the day with House members over a dispute about how much of a sales tax increase should be renewed.
The Senate plan keeps the state sales tax rate at 6.3 percent but would slice
it on groceries to 4.95 percent. It now goes to the House, where approval is questionable.
“I don't think it will have a lot of appeal,” said Rep. Kyle Hoffman, a Coldwater Republican.
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has called for keeping the current sales tax rate of 6.3 percent to fill a hole caused by income tax cuts enacted last year and to reduce income taxes even deeper in the future. The sales tax is scheduled by law to roll back to 5.7 percent in July.
House leaders are proposing to reduce the sales tax to 6 cents and have shown no signs of moving off that position, leading to a protracted debate that has left lawmakers with little to do in recent days.
The sales tax issue is particularly sensitive in the House, where many members either opposed the increase in 2010 or campaigned against it to get elected.
Senators, however, are hoping that the food sales tax cuts will be enough of a carrot to coax the House into agreeing to a tax plan.
But some Capitol observers are skeptical the House will go along, even though the Legislature on Thursday moved past the 90th day scheduled for this year’s session.
“We have to find a way out of town,” said Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican.
“I would say the House is at a point where they have to vote on something. I think they just to have to decide how long they want to be in Topeka.”
The Senate signaled that it is willing to work into the Memorial Day weekend to finish the session.
Rep. Gene Suellentrop, a Wichita Republican who watched the Senate proceedings, said he thought the Senate’s tax plan would get a good look in the House.
“I would say there’s going to be some serious consideration by the House members as a solution to satisfy both chambers and the governor,” Suellentrop said.
The Senate plan also would:
• Cut the top income tax bracket to 3.5 percent by 2018 from 4.9 percent currently.
• Cut the bottom income tax bracket to 2.5 percent by 2017 from 3 percent currently.
• Phase out itemized deductions by 2018, except for charitable contributions.
• Reduce the standard deduction for married couples filing jointly to $6,500 from $9,000. The standard deduction for heads of household would be
slashed to $5,000 from $9,000 currently.
Brownback quickly praised the Senate’s plan, saying in a statement that it would reduce the tax burden on all Kansans.
Among the opponents in the Senate was conservative Republican Jeff Melcher of Leawood. He voted against the Senate plan.
Melcher said reducing the sales tax on food was a form of social engineering that would cause people to buy more food in lieu of other products with higher sales taxes. He suggested it would cause people to eat more.
“It seems to me we are encouraging the behavior of purchasing food and discouraging the behavior of purchasing anything else,” Melcher said.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/23/4253042/kansas-senate-passes-plan-to-cut.html#storylink=cpy
Kansas tax and budget negotiations nudge forward May 21BY BRAD COOPERThe Kansas City Star
TOPEKA — Kansas lawmakers resumed talks on income tax cuts Tuesday with an eye to reaching an agreement Wednesday.
The House and the Senate stood just a fraction of a penny apart on agreeing to an overarching plan to lower income taxes even deeper than what was enacted last year.
On Tuesday, the Senate inched closer to a position taken by the House last week. That opened the possibility that this year’s legislative session could soon draw to a close.
Meanwhile, a separate committee reached a tentative agreement on a new budget for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 that would cut higher education only 1.5 percent each year.
Details of the $14.5 billion proposal for the fiscal year that starts in July weren’t immediately released Tuesday. But the possible House vote Wednesday would be the first by either chamber since legislators returned May 8 from a monthlong break.
Most of the attention this legislative session has been focused on income taxes and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s drive to eliminate them — what’s been dubbed the “march to zero.”
The chief point of contention has been whether to renew a six-tenths of a penny addition to the sales tax that the Legislature approved in 2010 to help the state weather the recession.
That sales tax is scheduled to lapse June 30. Brownback wants it renewed to help fill a hole in state revenues created by income tax cuts he signed
into law last year and to reduce income taxes even deeper in the future.
The Senate has pushed for renewing the entire six-tenths of a penny, while the House has advocated for half that much.
On Tuesday, the Senate lowered its demand slightly. Under the most recent Senate plan, the state sales tax would be 6.25 cents — instead of its earlier demands to set it at 6.3 cents. The House has proposed a state sales tax of a flat 6 cents.
“It’s a legitimate offer,” said Sen. Les Donovan, a Wichita Republican and chairman of the Senate tax committee. “It’s a path to get out of here.”
House tax chairman Richard Carlson, a St. Marys Republican, called it a “serious offer” and said he expects to return to the negotiating table Wednesday morning.
Here is a look at the other key differences between the House and Senate plans that need to be resolved in order to pass a budget and end the legislative session:
• The Senate would lower the top tax bracket to 3.5 percent in 2017 from the existing 4.9 percent level. The latest House offer would reduce the top bracket to 3.8 percent.
• The Senate would reduce the bottom tax bracket to 2.5 percent in 2017 from 3 percent currently. The House takes
the lower tax bracket to 2.1 percent by 2017.
• The House and Senate differ by how much itemized deductions would be reduced. The Senate wants to eliminate them by 2018 as income taxes are reduced. The House wants to keep at least a portion of them.
• Both chambers want to eliminate deductions for gambling losses.
• Both chambers also agree that standard deductions for head of household and married couples filing jointly should be cut.
The head of household deduction would drop to $5,000 from $9,000. The deductions for married couples would be cut to $6,500 from $9,000.
• The House wants to restore part of the food sales tax rebate program that was eliminated this year. The Senate’s offer did not include keeping the program.
Both the Senate and House had been meeting for abbreviated periods this week as lawmakers awaited the outcome of tax negotiations.
Brownback declined to comment on the Senate’s latest offer.
“I am not going to negotiate publicly,” Brownback said. “These guys need to negotiate, and they are, and that’s good.”
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/21/4248394/kansas-tax-and-budget-negotiations.html#storylink=cpy
Shop in Kansas to help Sunflower State neighbors May 21BY LEWIS W. DIUGUIDThe Kansas City Star
Missourians who want to help out their Sunflower State neighbors can go shop in Kansas.
It may be the only way to help keep Gov. Sam Brownback’s government afloat. Huge tax cuts in Kansas last year to try to attract businesses from surrounding states have necessitated the need for Kansas to keep from decreasing the 6.3 percent sales tax to 5.7 percent in July. The Legislature has to act on keeping it at that level rather than let it fall as dictated by state law.
By shopping in Kansas, Missourians and people in other neighboring states could help supplement Kansas revenues until Kansas grabs enough businesses from surrounding states lured by the tax cuts. The backward logic has as good a chance of paying off as any Powerball ticket has of winning.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/21/4247320/shop-in-kansas-to-help-sunflower.html#storylink=cpy
Kansas lawmakers’ talks on taxes at standstill May 20
TOPEKA — Negotiations are at a standstill between the Kansas House and Senate over the state’s sales tax rate and proposals to cut individual income taxes.
Three senators and three House members appointed to reconcile the differences between their chambers on tax issues had no meetings scheduled Monday.
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and GOP leaders in the Republican-dominated Legislature want to follow up on individual income tax cuts enacted this year with more cuts.
But the two chambers disagree over Brownback’s proposal to stabilize the budget by keeping the sales tax at 6.3 percent, rather than letting it drop to 5.7 percent in July, as scheduled by state law.
The Senate approved Brownback’s sales tax plan. House GOP leaders have proposed setting the rate at 6 percent.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/20/4245223/kansas-lawmakers-talks-on-taxes.html#storylink=cpy
Higher education spending key issue in Kansas budget talks May 20
TOPEKA — Proposed cuts in spending on higher education is a key issue for Kansas legislators as the House and Senate attempt to reconcile their differences on the state budget.
Legislative leaders hoped negotiations would resume Monday on proposed budgets of roughly $14.5 billion for each of the next two fiscal years, beginning in July. Talks broke off Friday, delaying the end of lawmakers’ annual session
The two chambers disagree over funding for state universities, community colleges and technical
colleges – and both are at odds with Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s recommendations.
Brownback wants to hold higher education funding flat for two years.
The House is proposing a 4 percent cut during the next fiscal year. The Senate is proposing to phase in a 2 percent cut over two years.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/20/4245204/higher-education-spending-key.html#storylink=cpy
Don’t mess with school standards in Kansas May 20
The first attempt to stall new reading and math standards for Kansas schoolchildren was blocked in the Legislature this session.
That was the right move. Kansas is among the 45 states that have adopted the Common Core standards in math and English. Many school districts have spent the last two years designing curricula around the standards, and state assessment tests have been overhauled to reflect what students will be learning.
To overturn the efforts now would require millions of dollars to draw up new standards and design new curricula and tests.
But that’s exactly what the Kansas Legislature might yet do in this long and contentious session.
A senator involved in the budget-writing process, Ty Masterson of Andover, has introduced a provision banning school districts and the Kansas
Board of Education from spending any state money to phase in the Common Core standards.
The move was backhanded and meddlesome. It’s the role of the Board of Education, not the Legislature, to determine learning standards for Kansas schools and students. To defund the initiative would place schools in an untenable limbo. It might also place Kansas back in the position of having to comply fully with the federal No Child Left Behind law; the state obtained a waiver based in part on its commitment to phasing in the Common Core.
Wiser lawmakers should stop this wrongheaded move to make bad educational policy in the budget process.
Contrary to what critics are saying, the Common Core standards are not a move by the federal government to dictate what children learn in school. They are the result of an initiative begun by the National Governors Association, which wanted to raise standards and make schools and students more competitive in a high-tech economy. States and local school districts decide on curricula to use to meet the standards.
Adoption of the Common Core is voluntary and initially even conservative Republican governors were eager to join. But the initiative has been sucked into the right-wing
paranoia vortex, which unfortunately holds great sway for Republican-controlled state legislatures. Belated revolts are popping up in Kansas, Missouri and elsewhere.
One goal of the educational standards is to encourage critical thinking — something sorely lacking in Masterson’s budget provision. It’s much too late for the Legislature to upend an educational initiative with nothing to replace it.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/20/4246341/dont-mess-with-school-standards.html#storylink=cpy
Some lawmakers waive pay as Kansas session goes into overtime May 24
Some Kansas legislators are waiving their salaries or donating the money to charity as the legislative session heads into extra days to solve the state’s tax policy.
Depending on whether or not it’s a weekend, it costs $35,000 or $45,000 daily right now to keep the session going.
By late afternoon Friday, 20 legislators had signed requests that they not receive their salary, expense allotment or both after the 90th day of the session, said Jeff Russell, director of Legislative Administrative Services.
Friday was the 91st day of the session as legislators grappled with tax policy; they also must finalize the state’s budget. Legislative leadership had set a goal earlier in the year of being finished
in 80 days – 20 days short of last year’s session.
Both chambers adjourned after meeting Friday and will reconvene Tuesday after the three-day Memorial Day weekend for the 95th day.
Gov. Sam Brownback said Kansas residents want their legislators to get tax policy right and are willing to accept the annual session going longer than anticipated.
“They’re interested in solutions, even if it takes some overtime,” Brownback told the Associated Press.
Actually, there’s no such thing as overtime, especially this year.
During election or even-numbered years, the Legislature has to pass a resolution to go over 90 days, Russell said. But in odd-numbered years such as this one, no action is required.
The daily cost for a legislative session has three tiers, depending on staffing levels.
At its peak, during the regular session and when all 140 staff members are working and legislators are being paid, it costs $63,000 daily to operate the Legislature.
“That’s full blown,” Russell said. “Everybody here is rocking and rolling.”
After the regular session ends and the veto session begins – which was May 8
this year – less staff is needed because committees aren’t meeting. The cost drops to $45,000 daily.
The 165 legislators are each entitled to $88.66 in salary and $123 for expenses for each day the clock is running.
Legislators are paid for weekends, except during extended breaks. No staff is paid on the weekends, so the only cost is the legislators’ salary and expense allotment – or $35,000 daily.
It’ll cost $105,000 for the three-day holiday weekend – minus, of course, the costs for those who have waived their pay and expenses.
The price tag will resume at $45,000 daily on Tuesday.
On the bright side, this legislative session is well short of the 108 days the Legislature logged in 1973. That was the longest session since 1947, the earliest records available, Russell said.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/24/4254863/some-lawmakers-waive-pay-as-kansas.html#storylink=cpy
Meltdown in Topeka: Brownback, lawmakers keep horror show going May 24BY YAEL T. ABOUHALKAHThe Kansas City Star
Gov. Sam Brownback and the Republican-controlled Legislature can’t seem to get anything right during the horror show that has become the 2013 legislative session.
In a stunning move Friday morning, the House voted to recess until Tuesday. That was just after the House rejected a large sales tax increase backed by Brownback and Kansas Senate.
So now the Legislature will be in session well past the 80 days it was supposed to meet. That came about two weeks ago.
Summed up, the GOP members can’t agree on what budget to pass or how to pay for it.
Isn’t that like, well, their main job?
Sure it is. But the governor and legislators have been busy with so much other important stuff in recent weeks. Remember that bill that would supposedly make it illegal for federal officers to try to enforce any gun laws in Kansas?
Yeah, got that one passed, even though it’s likely unconstitutional.
This week has been a disaster for Brownback and the Republicans.
Brownback basically has been MIA in the leadership department.
He has been promoting a large increase in the sales tax; he wants to keep it at 6.3 percent even though it’s mandated by a 2010 law to fall to 5.7 percent this summer.
The governor desperately needs the money to pay for all the income tax cuts that he and the Legislature approved in the 2012 session.
Those cuts — if not replaced with funds from the sales tax increase — will negatively affect higher education, K-12 schools, prisons, social services and other basic services the state of Kansas is supposed to provide.
But while Brownback steamrolled Senate leadership and got his tax increase, the House ignored the governor.
Members argued, quite accurately, that the 6.3 percent rate would amount to a tax increase, something the conservative House members didn’t want on their records.
Meanwhile, the Senate was pulling numbers out of the hat on Thursday, trying to figure out ways to get the House to go along with the sales tax increase. During that time, the Senate came up with the idea of reducing the sales tax on food.
The lower rate of 4.95 percent passed the Senate, but by Friday the House wasn’t buying.
So Brownback and his crew will be back on Tuesday, desperately trying to figure out a way to get out of a legislative session that just won’t end.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/24/4253713/brownback-tries-to-steamroll-kansas.html#storylink=cpy
Who’s soaring, who’s floundering?
May 24BY STEVE KRASKEThe Kansas City Star
↑ President Barack Obama. Beset by controversy, his poll numbers remaining rock-steady thanks to slight uptick in economic outlook.
↓ Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders. Timing of re-appraisal controversy not good as he gears up for third-term re-election run.
↑ KC Mayor Sly James. He hits the midpoint of first term with a key, albeit controversial, accomplishment already in hand (streetcars) and no potential challenger in sight. But he still must face down crime and east-side blight.
↓ Kanas Gov. Sam Brownback. Lawmakers thumb noses at governor’s call to get out of town. Now, 2013 session could drift to Christmas.
↔ Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. Session’s over: HORRAY! Session’s over: Uh-ohhh. Now guv has to start vetoing GOP bills, such as income tax cuts. That won’t please the Legislature’s ruling party.
↑ Missouri state Sen. Jolie Justus, a Kansas City Democrat. Oversees passage of key gay-rights bill through state Senate in big win for Show Me gay rights. Basks in praise from AG Chris Koster to boot.
↓ Kansas state Sen. Jeff Melcher, an Overland Park Republican, who argued against a sales tax cut on food because it amounted to social engineering. “It might encourage people to eat more,”
he said. Melcher won’t be living down that one for awhile.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/24/4254574/whos-soaring-whos-floundering.html#storylink=cpy
Brownback vetoes bill expanding Kansas raffles May 23Associated Press
TOPEKA — A bill that would have allowed limited expansion of charity raffles was vetoed by Gov. Sam Brownback on Thursday.
The Republican governor said he determined the bill violated the Kansas Constitution’s provisions on lotteries and gambling.
“However, I support the Legislature’s policy goal of permitting certain limited raffles for charitable purposes,” Brownback said in a statement. “I encourage the Legislature to consider a constitutional amendment to accomplish this goal.”
The vetoed bill also had provisions amending a state criminal code concerning the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s collection of DNA samples and a sentencing rule for firearms violations.
House Judiciary Chairman Lance Kinzer, an Olathe Republican, raised the same concerns as Brownback when the House approved the measure by a 74-49 vote on May 9. Kinzer filed a formal protest to the vote. The Senate adopted the bill 40-0 on April 4 before beginning a monthlong recess.
“The action of the House in passing HB 2120 was ill considered and inconsistent with our carefully balanced constitutional frame work regarding gambling in Kansas,” Kinzer said.
Senators supporting the measure said they would seek other opportunities to advance the DNA and firearms provisions, and hoped that something could be worked out to allow charities to continue their practice of holding raffles.
“We have to be able to have a common sense solution to having a local church to raffle off cakes or a local Lions Club to raise money for scholarships,” said Senate Vice President Jeff King, an Independence Republican.
Brownback signed six bills Thursday, including one establishing “Celebrate Freedom Week” in public schools and amending a law on bullying in schools. The measure would also let school districts use certain unencumbered funds for certain general operating expenses.
Celebrate Freedom Week was pushed as a means to encourage school districts to focus on study of the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents that establish individual rights and liberties. The bill was amended before going to Brownback to limit the scope to kindergarten through eighth grade because of concerns it
would interfere with the sequence of topics in high school curriculum.
Brownback has vetoed two bills from this session while signing another 126. Legislators are still seeking to find resolution on the 2014 and 2015 state budget, as well as changes to the state’s sales and income tax rates.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/23/4252397/brownback-vetoes-bill-expanding.html#storylink=cpy
Brownback to Kansas Legislature: Shut it down May 23BY STEVE KRASKEThe Kansas City Star
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has seen enough.
In a terse, four-sentence news release Wednesday, the governor demanded that lawmakers end the 2013 session.
“The Kansas Legislature has accomplished a great deal of work during the 2013 session,” he said.
“We have set the stage for economic growth in our state and are on the path to lowering the tax burden on all Kansans. Tomorrow is the 90th day. It is time to wrap-up the session.”
Journalists tend to start focusing on days in session once the count reaches 90. Some legislative leaders had boasted early in the session that they could wrap things up in 80 days.
The thinking: All the leaders are of the same conservative political stripe, so what could possibly go wrong?
But on Wednesday, lawmakers don’t sound ready to listen to Brownback as they continued to disagree about tax and budget issues.
Things could get complicated. Some key legislative players have vacation plans and won’t be around in the days to come.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/23/4251677/brownback-to-legislature-shut.html#storylink=cpy
Judges should be picked on merit May 21BY PATRICK B. STARKESpecial to The Star
In 1940, Missouri introduced the nation to the merit selection of judges. Since then, the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan has provided qualified appellate judges dedicated to the law, and not to a specific political agenda. It has been called Missouri’s “gift to the nation,” and nearly two-thirds of the states have adopted it in some form.
Over the last 70 years, special interests have consistently sought to recover the power to select judges. Their latest power play pushes the federal model to replace our merit selection systems, a move designed to increase politicians’ control over the judiciary.
The main feature of merit selection is that the power of judicial selection is spread out among a variety of groups: governors, lawyers, judges, the public. The public has a real and direct voice in judicial selection. A nominating
commission that includes three citizens recommends three candidates to the governor, and the governor chooses. Then voters determine whether to keep the judge at elections. The public participates directly in selection and in retention.
This spring, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill passed by politicians to replace merit selection with Washington, D.C.-style gridlock for Kansas’ appellate court. Interestingly, the same politicians have been reluctant to ask the people of Kansas to change the selection process for their Supreme Court, which is controlled by their constitution, not statute.
But is the federal system a better system? Let’s look at the details. The Washington, D.C., model gives the president sole appointment power, where the Missouri Plan’s nominating commission means power is dispersed among interests that differ by region, by profession, by specialty and, most important, by the politics of the time they are elected or appointed.
Supporters also claim the Washington, D.C., model is more accountable because of Senate confirmation. But the Missouri Plan is directly accountable to the voters, not just their elected officials. Plus, the Missouri Plan lets voters routinely decide if they want to keep a judge on the bench, rather than the lifetime appointments doled out in the nation’s capital.
Under the federal system judges are vetted and approved only by professional politicians. The public has no direct say. Under the Missouri Plan, the public is an integral part of the system.
Even a recent poll by the Kansas Policy Institute shows that a majority of Kansans prefer their merit selection system. So why, despite all these bad reasons, would someone abandon the Missouri Plan? Simply put, moneyed interests want their consequential ear of the executive to carry more weight when it comes to picking judges.
Many federal judicial positions currently are vacant because of politics. These judgeships are used as political tokens to be traded for some other legislative favor. Meanwhile, federal court dockets grow longer and longer. Politicians may benefit but at the expense of the public wanting their day in court. After knowing all this, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to be more like Washington, D.C.
Last November, three out of four Missouri voters rejected efforts to change our nonpartisan, merit-based judicial selection system. Together, the states with and working toward merit selection stand to keep the judicial system from becoming a political weapon for moneyed interests. We believe judges should be referees, not combatants for any cause except the rule of law.
As others stoke the fires of fear when it comes to merit selection, we will resist their call to be like Washington, D.C. We will do so because we are Missourians. The Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan belongs to the people of Missouri, and we must not let politicians and out-of-state special interests with big money steal it.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/21/4248270/judges-should-be-picked-on-merit.html#storylink=cpy
Ray Merrick: Speaking for the outsiders May 21BY BRAD COOPER, PHOTOS BY TAMMY LJUNGBLADThe Kansas City Star
TOPEKA — Welcome to Raymerricka.
It’s a world wryly known for wanting to create jobs, shrink government, preserve basic taxpayer services and expand personal freedoms.
It’s a world embodied by its leader, Kansas House Speaker Ray Merrick, who rose from the humblest of beginnings, born in a cabin in a rural western Canadian town with a population roughly the same size as the chamber he now leads.
While Merrick’s sphere of influence is dryly — and fondly — referred to as “Raymerricka,” it connotes an image in the statehouse of the Johnson Countian’s conservative leanings and his ability to build a life for himself out of poverty.
“Ray epitomizes starting off with no social or economic silver spoon of any kind and comes here and builds the American dream,” said state Rep. Marvin Kleeb, an Overland Park Republican who ran for the Legislature in 2008 with Merrick’s encouragement.
At 73, Merrick became one of the most powerful leaders in state government when he was elected last December speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives.
His election culminated 18 years in Kansas politics, starting in 1995 when he was thumped in a race for the Blue Valley school board. Five years later he was selected by Republican precinct committee members to fill a vacated seat in the Legislature.
Throughout his time in the Kansas House — with a two-year stopover in the state Senate — Merrick has flattened political challenger after political challenger even as he butted heads with established political leaders in Overland Park.
As a lawmaker, he has taken up sides against Overland Park — the state’s second largest city — as it sought to expand its boundaries. He battled a proposed parkway linking southeast Johnson County with Missouri. He opposed the pursuit of new taxes for academic research in Johnson County.
And in recent weeks, he’s been at the center of the protracted tax debate in
Topeka, resisting Gov. Sam Brownback’s efforts to renew a six-tenths of a cent sales tax that was approved in 2010 and is scheduled to lapse this summer.
So far, he’s refused to go along with extending the full six-tenths of a penny, opting instead for going halfway, to three tenths. Where it will end up is uncertain.
Many who know him don’t think he will roll over as easily as the Senate did last year when it passed a controversial tax plan that Brownback signed into law.
His critics say he’s stubborn. Supporters think he’s tenacious. Either way, Merrick is someone who will not be intimidated.
“He knows what he believes and knows why he believes it. He’s not scared to defend it,” said state Rep. Scott Schwab, an Olathe Republican.
As Merrick has risen through the ranks of the Legislature, he has developed a reputation as a crafty pol who sticks up for the interests of rural southeast Johnson County.
Over the years, he’s been credited for helping raise money for like-minded legislators and helping them get elected. Those who have worked alongside Merrick say he works with a purpose and a goal.
“I think he’s read Machiavelli,” said local lawyer Rod Richardson, who
serves with Merrick on a rural fire district board.
“I think he knows what he has to do to get things done, but he’s not going to (dump) on you to get it done,” Richardson said. “He has a pretty good idea of where he wants to go and how he wants to get there.”
Merrick served in the House from 2000 to 2010, rising to the rank of majority leader. He was appointed in 2010 to serve out the term of former Sen. Karin Brownlee, who took a job with the Brownback administration.
Merrick returned to the House this year, where he ran for House speaker, beating out Olathe Reps. Arlen Siegfreid and Lance Kinzer.
Even those who don’t agree with Merrick’s politics believe he represents the interests of southeast Johnson County well.
“I think he has his finger on the pulse of the district as well as anybody,” said Kevin Neuer, who used to live in south Johnson County where he battled the proposed the parkway.
“Given the state of the Legislature today, he is as good a representative for that area as could be found,” said Neuer, now a Lee’s Summit resident who concedes he’s more liberally inclined than Merrick.
Ray Merrick didn’t even come into this world as most know him today.
Ray Coburn was born in 1939 in a cabin in the hamlet of Mirror Landing — now known as Smith — in a thickly wooded area surrounded by lakes and streams about 100 miles northwest of Edmonton in the western Canadian province of Alberta. He was delivered by a traveling nurse who was paid $10 for her services.
Merrick’s father deserted the family by his second birthday, leaving his mom to care for him and a sister who was older by 18 months. The family left Canada for Sioux City, Iowa, in the mid-1940s so his mom could track down her husband and find work. It was there she forced Merrick’s father for a divorce.
Merrick’s mom took on three jobs to hold the family together, one in a meat-packing plant and two waitressing jobs. “We were definitely poor,” he said.
He recalls the time when he got a new bike for Christmas. He thought the neighbors had taken up a collection to buy the gift since his mom didn’t have the money.
But it turned out she had been stashing money away for the Roadmaster.
“Man, it was fancy. It had a light and chrome fenders,” Merrick said with a laugh. “That bike meant so much to me, I had it repainted many, many times.”
Merrick’s mom ultimately married again. Her new husband adopted Ray and his sister. Ray took his father’s name, becoming Ray Merrick.
Looking back on those early years, Merrick believes they helped mold his conservative political philosophy of today. “Money meant something,” he said.
Merrick has spent many years in the private sector, starting as a salesman for Folgers in 1965 and retiring as a senior vice president for Myron Green Cafeterias in 1996. He now owns a shopping center maintenance consulting company.
But it’s his military experience in the Marines that colleagues cite as one of his strongest personal and political attributes.
Merrick served in the Marines as well as the reserves from 1960 to 1967. He underwent the rigors of military life including prisoner-of-war training and waterboarding.
Many who know him believe his military training instilled self-discipline that is evidenced in his daily regimen, which begins at 5:30 or 6 in the morning each day and ends around 10 p.m.
At the Topeka home he had shared with roommates during the legislative
session, Merrick the Marine sometimes surfaced.
He is meticulously neat and gets annoyed when roommates constantly flip TV channels with the remote, said Rep. Steve Huebert, a lawmaker from Valley Center who’s bunked with Merrick in Topeka and thinks of him as a father figure.
“He’s just a guy that likes order, likes the routine and likes keeping things picked up,” Huebert said.
The discipline was seen in Merrick’s focused drive to get a tax-cut bill and a budget passed in 80 days compared to the 90 days scheduled for the legislative session.
Merrick is credited — or blamed depending on the legislator — for holding back legislation that could sidetrack the House from focusing on taxes and spending.
“Ray wanted to show that when you have a conservative House, you have a conservative Senate and you have a conservative governor, you can in fact govern, and you can in fact get things done,” said state Rep. Steve Brunk, a conservative Wichita Republican.
“Job One is to do what is necessary to put policies in place that will attract businesses,” Brunk said. “It is to that end that we have a very narrow and focused agenda this year.”
Even so, Merrick failed to meet his 80-day deadline as the debate over extending the sales tax ground to a halt. Finishing in the scheduled 90 days looked iffy until budget and tax negotiations heated up Tuesday afternoon.
The House took a very different different approach to taxes than what Brownback called for at the beginning of the legislative session and what the Senate eventually passed.
The House has been reluctant to renew the six-tenths of a penny sales tax while wanting to cut more spending. Brownback and the Senate want to renew the tax.
Negotiations have been dragging on for days with little sign of action. The House agreed to meet the Senate halfway with a three-tenths cent extension, but the Senate has not been willing to budge so far.
Merrick’s resolve makes him a formidable political force.
“When you’re not scared and you’re willing to lose on principle and negotiate on principle, there’s a lot of people willing to follow you,” Schwab said.
Lawmakers say this session could have been easily steered in a more conservative direction if Merrick had wanted. They note that there were bills on immigration, regulating sexually
oriented businesses and banning abortion at the point a heartbeat is audible that didn’t advance.
At one point early in the session, Merrick made it clear he didn’t want the House spinning out of control on issues beyond the state’s fiscal health.
For instance, Merrick showed no interest in moving any kind of large-scale bill regulating illegal immigration.
“If we get into that this year, it’s going to be very, very lengthy and I don’t think we have time to do some of that stuff; same with the social issues,” Merrick said early in the session.
“We need to do the fiscal stuff. I think that’s what the people think we should be here for,” he said. “I’m not looking for things like that to take us away from the fiscal debates.”
But Merrick has been criticized by some lawmakers for limiting debate too much.
He’s been knocked for not moving bills to expand Medicaid coverage for the poor, preventing the developmentally disabled from being placed into the state’s new managed health care program and requiring insurers to add treatment for autistic children to basic health coverage.
“Over and over you see a leadership style that avoids debate, avoids difficult decisions,” said Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat.
But Merrick said he has tried to include everyone in the process. Has everyone gotten what they wanted? Probably not, he said.
“There’s a time for everything and everything has its time,” Merrick said.
For someone whose job it is to be “speaker,” Merrick is a man of few words.
You won’t find him slinging insults or outlandish political rhetoric at the microphone. In fact, he acknowledges that he rarely has gone to the mic at all during his tenure in the Legislature.
“I tell new people, ‘Listen to the room,’” Merrick said. “The person that goes to the mic all the time, the volume of the room goes up. For the person that doesn’t go up there very often, there’s a hush in the room.
“I want to be the hush in the room.”
Friends and colleagues say Merrick prefers to work outside the limelight, building personal connections with Republicans, including those with more moderate leanings.
They see that in Merrick’s ability to forge relationships outside the Johnson County delegation, especially with lawmakers from the Wichita area and western Kansas.
“It can’t be all Johnson County,” he said.
The book on Merrick — in Topeka and back home in Johnson County — says he will always listen to an issue and then tell you how he sees it. He’s not disrespectful.
“If he disagrees with your issues, he’ll tell you right up front. He won’t glad-hand you and send you away feeling good about yourself,” said Darrell Dougan, a south Johnson County resident active in politics who serves on the local fire district board with Merrick.
But others see a stubborn streak in Merrick, sometimes making an issue personal and refusing to compromise.
“I do not see him as a negotiator. I do not see him as a listener,” said one former longtime statehouse lobbyist.
But others see Merrick as someone who tolerates differing views.
Moderate Republicans, for instance, talk about how Merrick treats them with warmth and respect even though they were crushed in the last election.
State Rep. Melissa Rooker, a moderate Republican from Fairway, said Merrick met with her over breakfast before the start of this year’s session to learn her interests and goals.
Although Rooker and Merrick don’t agree on some major issues, she
believes that talk led him to put her on the House education committee, where she helped defeat an effort to ban Common Core educational standards.
“I was really impressed that he would take that time and make the effort to get to know me,” Rooker said. “It was significant to me because it was a mark of respect.”
A similar view is shared by House Minority Leader Paul Davis, a Lawrence Democrat.
Davis said that Merrick understands the role Democrats play in the Legislature.
“He knows we’re going to irritate him from time to time. He doesn’t take it personally,” Davis said.
Soften-spoken and approachable, Merrick doesn’t have the same forceful presence as former House Speaker Mike O’Neal, but that doesn’t mean he is any less of a political animal.
Merrick is known less as an arm-twister than as someone who gauges the chamber’s temperature and figures out how to move legislators in a certain direction.
Colleagues believe Merrick is a shrewd politician who can count votes as well as anyone. They point out that Merrick has been careful not to force divisive debates on issues that would fracture the Republican caucus.
“I think people underestimate him as a political strategist,” Davis said.
Davis points to Merrick’s positioning on the sales tax. He credits Merrick for standing up against Brownback’s plan to renew the sales tax increase.
“There is a lot of pressure on him to conform to the governor’s wishes, and he has been pretty up front about the fact that he’s not going to do that,” Davis said.
Over the years, there have been two different perspectives of Ray Merrick back home in Johnson County.
There’s the view from outside the Interstate 435 loop. There, Ray Merrick is a champion of the county’s rural interests who wants to protect their lifestyles from urban encroachment.
And there’s the view inside the I-435 loop, where Ray Merrick is the one who’s needled the Johnson County power structure over the years as he has taken sides against the city of Overland Park.
He has opposed Overland Park’s attempts to expand its boundaries by trying to place new limits on annexation. He opposed state bonding for the Wonderful World of Oz project, which was eventually rejected by the Johnson County Commission.
And he unsuccessfully fought efforts to raise local taxes for the Johnson County Education Research Triangle, an initiative that funds scientific study in the areas of cancer, food safety and business, engineering and technology at three state university campuses within the county.
While supporters of the research effort said it was an example of the kind of visionary thinking that built Johnson County into an economic engine, Merrick saw it differently.
“It’s the good ol’ boy network here in Johnson County that’s pushing it,” he said at the time.
He called the triangle “nothing more than a government-subsidized personal dream project” that “ties the hands of government.”
Merrick’s thoughts about the project are the same today as they were when it was passed.
“I’m not hearing a lot about what they’re doing out there and the return on investment,” he said. “That should be heralded if they’re doing a lot of good things out there.”
Merrick says the answer to improving the quality of life isn’t necessarily based on spending money.
“I don’t see how I have had an impact on (Johnson County) being less than what it can be,” he said. “I don’t have
any visceral dislike for Johnson County. Hell, I live here.”
Over the years, Merrick’s been no friend of the issues supported by the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce. Merrick has voted with the chamber about two-thirds of the time during his legislative career and only 28 percent of the time when he was in the Senate in 2012.
He parted with the chamber by supporting the tax cuts that Brownback signed into law last year. Those cuts left an estimated $744 million hole in the state budget for fiscal year 2014.
He also went against the chamber with votes to let the governor pick appeals court nominees and measures that would have reduced sales taxes by taking money out of the state highway plan.
Merrick readily acknowledges that he’s been a thorn in the side of Overland Park and adds, “I’m very, very proud of it.”
And that’s worked for him.
Merrick has represented southeast Johnson County for 13 years in the Kansas Legislature. He hasn’t had an opponent since 2008. He’s had six contested races since 2000, never receiving less than 53 percent of the vote.
“It says a lot about taking care of your district,” Merrick said. “The causes
they’re interested in are the causes I’m interested in.”
Merrick acknowledges that relations with the Overland Park chamber have not always been amicable. “I’ve been controversial on a lot of issues that the chamber’s been for,” he said.
But he said he thinks the relationships with the chamber and the political establishment inside the I-435 loop have improved. “If there’s a problem, it’s their problem. I don’t have any animosity toward them,” he said.
Larry Winn III, a longtime Overland Park political insider and chairman of the chamber’s board, said that since Merrick has been speaker he has shown an interest in the views of the city’s business community.
“I have found him to be very knowledgeable and open-minded,” Winn said. “We may still have a contrary position, but at least it’s on a much higher intellectual level than it has been in the past.”
Richardson, the fire board chairman, said he thinks Merrick’s politics are rooted in the rural interests of the county.
“I think he is very sympathetic to people that would like to live unmolested by the bureaucracies of the expanding cities,” Richardson said.
But Richardson said he thinks Merrick has a pragmatic streak. While Merrick
may advocate small government, he doesn’t want to cut government at all costs.
He said Merrick understands that Johnson Countians treasure public safety, and he has been willing to spend the money to provide the service. For instance, Merrick supported a property tax increase to pay for replacing the fire district’s fleet of trucks.
“He has not banged the table to lower the mill levy to the point where we have to carry water by buckets to put fires out,” Richardson said.
In another example of pragmatism, Merrick in 2006 supported giving the initial $5 million seed money for the University of Kansas Medical Center to build a world-class cancer center.
At the time, Merrick said the project would reduce “brain drain” from Kansas, increase the flow of federal research dollars to the region and create jobs.
It was an unusual twist from this year, when Merrick has defended a proposed 4 percent cut in higher education.
Merrick supported money for KU after learning of a neighbor boy who died of a brain tumor. Merrick was swayed by the case the boy’s family made for the money and because the disease touched his life as well. His first father died of cancer. So did his sister-in-law.
He’s proud of getting that money in the budget and still is today. Not all government spending is bad, he said.
“If it’s the right thing, that’s what we’re here for,” Merrick said. “Is this needed or not needed? I’ve tried to look at things through that lens.”
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/21/4248395/ray-merrick-speaking-for-the-outsiders.html#storylink=cpy
Bigger push on Kansas judiciary selection coming May 19BY JOHN HANNA THE ASSOCIATED PRESSTOPEKA — A prominent conservative Kansas legislator has launched what could become the most aggressive campaign to date to rein in the state Supreme Court after a proposal failed that would have changed how its justices are selected.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lance Kinzer wants to make the state's appellate courts, including the Supreme Court, more accountable to the public they're supposed to serve. Conservatives' desire to overhaul the courts intensified in recent years following Supreme Court decisions in abortion, death penalty and education funding cases.
Kinzer, an Olathe Republican, unveiled three proposals last week, only a day after two developments in the debate over the judicial selection system. The Kansas Bar Association's board unanimously rejected a proposal for Senate confirmation of appellate court members, a move that caused supporters to stop their push for it. The decision came hours after Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss
accused another prominent conservative of trying to exert undue influence on behalf of the measure, an allegation the lawmaker said was “baseless.”
One of Kinzer's proposals would reorganize the state's top courts and remove the Supreme Court as final arbiter of many of the cases that now come before the seven justices.
He said his proposal is a starting point for a discussion about the Supreme Court's role. However, if he's successful, it would lose much of its authority to settle cases – an idea that lawmakers haven't seriously pursued.
“Anytime you're looking at a fundamental reorganization of the structure of the courts, that is a far-reaching proposal,” Kinzer said during an interview.
Another House committee – Federal and State Affairs – agreed last week to sponsor Kinzer's proposals, and he intends to have lawmakers consider them next year. Legislators hope to wrap up their business for the year this week.
Kinzer's measures alarm Democratic legislative leaders. They already consider proposals to change how Supreme Court and Court of Appeals members are chosen as attempts by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's allies to ensure that the courts become
subservient to executive and legislative branches under conservatives' control.
“It's just an overreach,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat. “It's just punitive politics at its worst.”
Legislators are watching the Supreme Court because it's reviewing a school finance lawsuit. In January, a three-judge panel in Shawnee County declared that the state isn't living up to its obligation under the state constitution to adequately und public schools and ordered a boost in spending of at least $440 million a year.
In 2005 and 2006, Supreme Court rulings in a previous education funding lawsuit forced the state to dramatically increase its spending, much to the frustration of GOP conservatives.
What followed then – and now – were proposals to change the judicial selection system and rewrite provisions of the Kansas Constitution to prevent the courts from having a say in how much money is spent on public schools.
Kinzer's proposal to decrease the mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges would ensure at least eight vacancies on those courts for Brownback to fill should he serve two full terms as governor.
But the proposal to reorganize the appellate courts would have an even
more dramatic effect. The state constitution says the Supreme Court has the jurisdiction to consider challenges from prisoners to the legality of their incarceration, lawsuits aimed at forcing public officials to perform a public duty and challenges to the right of someone to hold office or a government license or privilege. The constitution says the Supreme Court also hears other appeals “as may be provided by law.”
Thus, much of the Supreme Court's authority to hear cases is set by state law, not the constitution, which is far more difficult to change. A constitutional amendment must be adopted by two-thirds majorities in both chambers and approved by a simple majority of voters in a statewide election. Changing state law takes a simple majority in both chambers and the governor's signature.
Kinzer proposes splitting the existing Court of Appeals into a five-member tribunal to hear the final appeals in criminal cases and a nine-member court that would sit in three-member panels to consider civil cases. His proposal also would not have the Supreme Court hear most civil cases, but Kinzer said he's starting there to push lawmakers to thoroughly examine exactly which cases the justices might handle.
But if Kinzer is successful, a Supreme Court that has yet to authorize an
execution under the state's 1994 capital murder law would no longer consider death penalty cases. A high court that has ordered the state to increase education spending might not review such issues ever again.
And such possibilities have undeniable appeal for the conservative Republicans who control the Legislature.
“There is a level of concern, I know, in just talking to rank-and-file legislators,” said Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, a Hutchinson Republican who favors changing the judicial selection system.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/19/4244053/bigger-push-on-kansas-judiciary.html#storylink=cpy
In Kansas, it’s lawmakers versus the courts May 19BY BRAD COOPERThe Kansas City Star
TOPEKA — Kansas lawmakers began the year turning away the chief justice of the state Supreme Court from his traditional speech to the Legislature.
The legislative session nears an end with the chief justice accusing a leading senator with political coercion. Meantime, efforts are picking up steam to force appellate judges into retirement and to build separate civil and criminal appeals courts.
“Tensions are high between the court system and the Legislature,” said Sen. Jeff King, an Independence Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
That could be an understatement.
Relations between the two branches of government have been rocky for years, especially with controversial court decisions ordering the Legislature to spend millions more on schools and stymieing the state’s use of the death penalty.
“You have a court that on some touchstone issues has been challenging what is mostly a conservative and Republican-dominated Legislature,” said Joe Aistrup, a political scientist at Kansas State University. “It has led to some pretty big showdowns.”
Conservative lawmakers have argued that the Supreme Court lacks philosophical diversity, which they say feeds decisions they view as going beyond the law.
Those legislators have been particularly upset with the court ordering how much the state should pay to fund schools from a case dating to 2005.
“They appropriated the money, and they don’t have the authority to do that,” said Sen. Greg Smith, an Overland Park Republican.
Tensions flared last week when Chief Justice Lawton Nuss dueled with King. And an Olathe legislator introduced a bill that would remake the appellate system by lowering the retirement age for appellate judges.
Nuss accused King of tying approval of parts of the judiciary budget to judges supporting a plan for changing how appellate judges are selected. “We find this linkage distasteful — and unacceptable,” Nuss wrote to judges on May 14.
King said the accusation was “false and baseless” and was based on a meeting the chief justice didn’t attend.
Nuss’ letter may have backfired, only aggravating a Legislature focused on changing the makeup of the court by refashioning how judges are picked.
Rep. Lance Kinzer, an Olathe Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, thought the chief justice was out of bounds in his allegations against King. He said the letter was evidence of the politicking he believes the court has undertaken on issues, namely judicial selection.
“It was indicative of something, from my perspective, that should not have occurred,” Kinzer said.
It has already been a rough year for the judiciary, and it’s setting up to be even more serious next year. Plans are in the works to limit the power of the state’s high court to mostly civil cases and to lower the retirement age for judges.
That would compound the legislator-judge rivalry heating up this year.
• House Speaker Ray Merrick rebuffed the chief justice’s request to address a
joint session of the Legislature to present the State of the Judiciary report. Merrick said lawmakers had complained the report was a waste of time.
• The Legislature passed a bill allowing the governor to pick judges for the Court of Appeals with Senate confirmation. Appeals court judges are currently picked by a screening panel made up mostly of lawyers who recommend candidates to the governor.
• Lawmakers have unsuccessfully pushed a constitutional amendment preventing the Supreme Court from telling them how much to spend on schools.
“Every part of this effort has been an effort to control the judiciary and change its makeup so that it looks more like the legislative and executive branch philosophically,” said Overland Park lawyer Greg Musil.
Most of the debate over the Kansas judicial system is centered on how appellate judges are picked.
The state has used a nine-member nominating commission, which is made up of five attorneys picked by other lawyers and four non-attorneys appointed by the governor. The governor then chooses from among three candidates picked by the commission.
Critics say that system is undemocratic because it puts the judiciary in the hands of an unaccountable group where lawyers outnumber laymen.
Gov. Sam Brownback has pushed hard for changing that system to a federal model, where the chief executive nominates a candidate for Senate confirmation.
Critics say that would politicize the selections.
One effort this year aimed to let the governor appoint Supreme Court and appeals court judges. But changing the high court requires a constitutional amendment.
The Senate passed the amendment, but supporters couldn’t muster the necessary two-thirds support needed in the House.
Key lawmakers had been negotiating with the Kansas Bar Association to come up with a compromise that would have kept the nominating commission for appellate judges but would have given the governor a majority of appointments to the panel.
The bar association rejected the idea, and Kinzer subsequently introduced bills that would have changed the court system.
One proposal would lower the retirement age for appeals court judges to 65 from 75. That’s seen by the
Kansas Bar Association as an aggressive attack by the Legislature.
By 2017 — what could be the third year of a second Brownback second term — eight of the state’s 20 appeals court judges would be 65 years old. Three of the judges who would be at or near the lowered retirement age are on the seven-member Supreme Court.
“That’s the threat,” said Lee Smithyman, president of the Kansas Bar Association. “It certainly is an act of hostility.”
Kinzer said the bill lowering the retirement age originated from lawmakers who have wanted to look at term limits for judges. He thought lowering the retirement age seemed like a more reasonable approach.
He said looking at some kind of limit on how long judges serve would be an option if a consensus can’t be reached on a new selection process.
“I view the retirement age as a starting point for that conversation,” Kinzer said.
Kinzer also is proposing legislation that would split the state Court of Appeals into two, one for criminal cases and another for civil.
The criminal division would have final say on all criminal cases. Lawmakers are also looking at the potential of limiting the high court’s civil jurisdiction as well.
House minority leader Paul Davis rebuked Kinzer’s proposal, saying it was an effort to bully the courts.
“Gov. Brownback has been fixated on gaining control over the independent judiciary since the district court ordered the Legislature to properly fund Kansas public education” in January, the Democrat said. “It is time for Gov. Brownback and Republican legislative leaders to abandon this power grab and respect the system of checks and balances.”
Kinzer said the timing was right to bring the new proposals forward after an agreement could not be reached on judicial selection.
He expects the issues to be taken up during next year’s legislative session.
“I wanted to get the ball rolling before the legislative session wrapped up this year so that people can have something firm to look at,” he said.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/19/4244955/in-kansas-its-lawmakers-versus.html#storylink=cpy
Kathleen Sebelius and the ‘fourth scandal’ May 24BY BARBARA SHELLYThe Kansas City Star
It’s looking like a long summer for Kathleen Sebelius.
That was going to be the case anyway, what with the pressure of getting state-based insurance exchanges — the meat of the Affordable Care Act — up and rolling in the face of obstruction from Congress and Republican-controlled states like Kansas and Missouri.
But now the former governor of Kansas and current U.S. Health and Human Services secretary has placed herself in the sights of scandal-hungry Republican lawmakers and political operatives.
In the words of one strategist, they are looking at Sebelius as “the fourth scandal.”
Scandals one, two and three, for those who don’t watch Fox News or breathlessly follow every Beltway occurrence, would be Benghazi, the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservative nonprofit groups, and the Justice Department’s pursuit of phone and email records of journalists.
Republicans are hoping scandal number four will turn out to be Sebelius’ acknowledgment that she solicited financial donations from H&R Block Inc., the tax preparation firm, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She wants the money to go to Enroll America, a private nonprofit group that is gearing up to promote the Affordable Care Act and help people enroll in the new insurance exchanges. And yes, some of the staffers in Enroll America worked for President Barack Obama’s campaign.
Frankly, I wish Sebelius had refrained. She is careful, and I’ll be surprised if it turns out she solicited any business or group that her department regulates or does business with, which would violate federal law. But it doesn’t look good for the HHS secretary to be out with hat in hand, even if Republicans in Congress created the problem by refusing to allocate adequate funds to properly roll out the federal health care law.
A group of Republican senators, including Pat Roberts of Kansas, wasted no time calling for a “top to bottom review of the Department’s decision to move forward with the initiative.” Republican House members have weighed in with their own probe. The General Accounting Office has been ordered to investigate.
To a point, this is fair enough. Congress and the press both should be watching the administration. An independent, informed legal opinion as to whether Sebelius acted properly should settle this particular matter.
But it won’t.
One can envision the hearings. The outraged congressmen and the pompous senators grilling the secretary, with no answer likely to satisfy. The TV lights and live coverage on Fox. A new revelation (or non-revelation) popping up every couple of days. Is it any wonder good people are
reluctant to go into public service these days?
It’s not really about Sebelius asking for donations. It’s about discrediting the president and ginning up fresh outrage over the Affordable Care Act in advance of the 2014 midterm elections. It’s about Republicans doing their best to prevent the president’s health care reform law from succeeding. It’s about promoting a narrative — the Obama administration as incompetent and dishonest.
The president’s steady poll numbers show that, so far, much of America isn’t buying it. Out in these parts, people are more worried about tornadoes than Sebelius’ money raising.
Washington publications report that at least a third of House committees are now preoccupied with investigating some aspect of the administration. It’s so much easier to grill officials than to earnestly seek solutions to the nation’s problems and actually get something done.
Therein lies the scandal.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/23/4252324/kathleen-sebelius-and-the-fourth.html#storylink=cpy
